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Let My Body Speak
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Let My Body Speak
IDFA 2020

Let My Body Speak

Madonna Adib
United Kingdom
2020
10 min
International Premiere
Festival history

This personal and intimate short film by Madonna Adib centers on her own body. It is a body which was attracted to girls when she was growing up in Damascus, which grew unwanted breasts, and which was punished for not complying with the government regime. Adib was beaten every day at school; she refused to be on time for the morning roll call when students had to chant slogans to the glory of the Baā€™ath Party. In voice-over, Adib describes the trauma that damaged her, not only physically but also mentally.

She includes gentle home movie footage of her childhood, in which we see her grow from a short-haired tomboy into an awkward adolescent, alternated with intimate closeups of her naked adult body. While shrill voices and noises in the soundtrack evoke the repression of her youth, the camera scans her body as a tender landscape of shape and texture, light and shadow.

Credits
Director
Cinematography
    Elsy Hajjar
    Elsy Hajjar
World Sales
    Scottish Documentary Institute
    Scottish Documentary Institute
Screening copy
    Scottish Documentary Institute
    Scottish Documentary Institute