Heim
Spring Grants 2019 - Development Stage
Liwaa Yazaji, Mohammad Abou Laban / TV Series / Lebanon, Qatar / 60 min / Original Language: Arabic, English, German / Interests: Drama, Immigration
Synopsis
‘Heim’ takes place in a refugee centre in Berlin-Tempelhof airport, which though technically out of service is still “welcoming” different departing and arriving sort of people. They’re not the fancy passersby travelling to their own ends—they’re now deemed refugees whose life practically stopped here, paused on standby mode. The airport is thus a limbo they are stuck in. Not only their destiny is what we see here, but also that of the German characters accompanying them. As the German employees living through this experience are not better off; they are no longer the smartly dressed captains and crews, nothing more than exhausted overworn employees, obsessed with the duty of “protecting” a-la carte this modern Tower of Babel they found themselves part of. It’s a testing ground for different identities and clashing worlds, where people come to the realisation that however much we understand about each other, it’ll never outweigh how much we don’t understand. No one can witness nor come close to this absurdity hoping to stay the same. No one enters this limbo and leaves the same; lives here change completely, once and for all.
Credits
- Director
- Liwaa Yazaji, Mohammad Abou Laban
- Screenwriter
- Liwaa Yazaji, Mohammad Abou Laban
- Producer
- Tania Khoury
- Production Company
- Khamsin Films
About the Director
Liwaa Yazji is a filmmaker, poet, playwright, scenarist and translator. She was educated in both English Literature and Theater Studies. Her first documentary ‘Haunted’ (2014) premiered at FID Marseilles. She published her first play ‘Here in the Park’ in 2012, her poetry book ‘In Peace, we leave Home’ 2014, and a translation of Edward Bond’s ‘Saved’ into Arabic in 2014. She has worked as a script doctor at several pan-Arab companies and wrote the script of the pan-Arab series ‘The Brothers’ (2014). Her play ‘Goats’ premiered in The Royal Court in November 2017, and her play ‘Q&Q’ premiered at the Birth Festival at The Royal Exchange Theatre October 2016.
Screenwriter, poet, playwright and journalist, Mohammad Abou Laban was educated in both Philosophy and Theater Studies in Syria. He worked on several TV projects in the Arab world including TV short films, adaptations and a soap opera, among them ‘The Brothers’ (2014). In addition to collaborating on several documentary films, he worked at Radio Nacional de España as a journalist, broadcaster, and editor. He is also co-founder and editor in the magazine “A Syrious Look”, and the artistic director of the Syrian Mobile Film Festival. He is currently co-writing ‘Heim’, a TV series to be produced in Germany.
Contacts
-
Main Contact
Liwaa Yazaji
- Email:
- liwaa.yazji@gmail.com
-
Main Contact
Mohammad Abou Laban
- Email:
- moaboulaban@gmail.com