An Interview With Filmmaker Maya Mounayer about her new documentary Home of Rivers

Working on her new documentary Home of Rivers, filmmaker Maya Mounayer states: “I believe it is very important to have an independent Syrian cinema that is being produced entirely inside Syria”

After obtaining her master’s degree in filmmaking from Paris-1 University in 2010, Syrian filmmaker and producer Maya Mounayer returned to Damascus, where, despite the various difficulties, she has since been living her professional and social life.

Maya has been working on her new documentary,Home of Rivers, for a few months. The documentary is partly funded by a grant from Ettijahat-Independent Culture’s Arts Programme, in association with Goethe Institut.

Ettijahat asked Maya a few questions about her documentary—its story, visual language, production challenges and the latest developments. Here are her answers.

What is the film about?

The documentary builds on the ancient Mesopotamian myth of the Great Flood, and its similarities with the ongoing war in the Middle East, to examine topics such as immigration, integration and creating a life amid death. Home of Rivers follows a Mandaean Iraqi family who took refuge in Syria, which is a strange paradox, since Syria is witnessing one of the biggest mass immigrations in recent history.

Despite all circumstances and difficulties, Damascus today is a safe home for Al Zuhairis. After being encouraged by his family and some Syrian artists, the father of the family, Salam, decides that after a long hiatus of 14 years he will start working as a sculptor again. He had stopped because his artistic work was a danger to his life back in Iraq. Now, he is remaking his sculpture, Scream. The sculpture is his scream for stopping massacres, displacement and fragmentation of people, his way of demanding the preservation of his cultural identity.

Through Al Zuhairis’ experience, the documentary follows the temporary and rare Mandaean Iraqis’ stay in Damascus, and explores the unique relationship between a closed group holding on to its culture, and a city with a long historical tradition of openness.

What artistic techniques or cinematic language are you using in making this documentary?

Home of Rivers is a ‘Creative Doc’ that tells its story using three visual elements:

- Documentary footage that depicts what’s happening here and now.

- Archive footage that was filmed in 2012 by a group of Mandeans during the Kanshi & Zahli (Union and Cleansing) festivities in Damascus. In this footage, the subjects talk about the festivities and their relationship with them.

- Stop motion footage that is used as a metaphor to things that cannot be filmed directly, such as the memories of Baghdad and Ramadi, and the links between the ongoing war and the Mesopotamian myth.

Using these three visual elements, the film combines present day stories, mythology and dreams.

What are the most prominent challenges that you face having to film in Damascus?

The ongoing war in Syria poses significant challenges. First of all, we are facing life threatening circumstances. For example, we were filming in the town of Jaramana and mortar shells were being dropped all around us. Possible filming locations are extremely limited, especially for a documentary.

The economic problem makes things more complicated. Most of the film industry professionals have immigrated, namely because of the huge difference in salaries between Syria and neighbouring countries. This is a big problem for beginner producers and filmmakers. They can’t compete financially.

Moreover, there are technical difficulties, such as continuous power and internet cuts with no viable alternative sources, and it takes twice as much time to finish any task.

But for me, the main problem is that it is very difficult for us to develop our artistic and technical approach because it’s extremely difficult to travel to and from Syria. We are isolated.

How do you see living and working in Damascus now, with everything that is going on? Is there any particular issue, whether personal or professional, you would like to talk about?

Life in Syria today is a very rich source of stories for films in general and documentaries in particular. Filmmakers all over the world are trying to follow these stories, but it’s quite different for those who live here permanently. Staying and working in Syria might not be a viable choice, in terms of production, but for me personally, the difficulties provide me with an immense energy to continue living and working.

In such circumstances, a filmmaker should be innovative and think outside the box, when dealing with artistic, or even technical, matters. The mass immigration of professionals, for example, had given us a great opportunity to train young individuals who aren’t from conventional circles of the film industry. This gives our work a new and different spirit. Another example on the technical side is that we have created our own lighting equipment that can be powered by car batteries. It was extremely cheap with good results, and we used it as an alternative to professional lighting, which had become unbearably costly because of currency decline. What is more, this equipment was a good solution to power problems, including long power cuts and lack of fuel for power generators.

I believe it is very important to have an independent Syrian cinema that is being produced entirely within Syria. I am dedicating all I can to this. Most of what I have seen about the Syrian crisis doesn’t express what I want to express. Nowadays, when you say Syria, people think of dead bodies, displaced people and children in refugee camps. That may very well be a part of what we are now, but it is not who we are. We have a lot of energy and an undefeatable will to live. That’s why I’m staying here and trying to make films that examine things from a different angle.

Maya and her team have finished filming all documentary footage and part of the stop motion footage. They are working on categorising raw materials and writing the final script for the documentary, as well as finishing the remainder of the stop motion footage. Soon, the team will start the post-production phase and they expect to complete it next August. The documentary is expected to be ready for screening in October 2016.