Al Baseer - The Blind Ferryman
Fall Grants 2023 - Post-Production Stage
Ali Al-Fatlawi / Feature Narrative / Iraq, Switzerland, Qatar / 120 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction
Synopsis
The blind ferryman Ayoub lives with his mother and religious brother in the Iraqi marshes. He always finds his way despite his lack of eyesight. He earns his money by driving people around the marshes. People like to ride with him because Ayoub sings when he steers his boat through the reed fields. In the evenings, he meets his friends. They drink and talk about the mysteries of life until late into the night. One of these evenings, when they have been drinking quite a lot, they are attacked by a group of radicals. The friends jump into their boats and escape into the darkness of the night.
For the first time in his life, Ayoub gets lost. He is saved by a mysterious woman who disrupts his very existence, and his life revolves more and more around their secret encounters. Whenever he tells his friends about her, they don’t believe him, and rumours start to spread that he has lost his mind. People no longer want to ride with him, and even his friends become distant. Ayoub’s self-doubts grow until he no longer knows what is real and what is imagination. He decides to kill the mysterious woman to prove that he is not insane. But is it possible to destroy what one believes in?
Credits
- Director
- Ali Al-Fatlawi
- Screenwriter
- Ali Al-Fatlawi, Joël Jent
- Producer
- Samir (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion), Ali Al-Fatlawi (Karada Films)
- Production Company
- Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Karada Films
About the Director
Ali Toffan Al-Fatlawi, born and raised in Baghdad, is a Swiss-Italian-Iraqi citizen. Forced to leave his country in 1994, he continued his studies in Zurich and completed a Bachelor of Media and Arts from F&F. Ali works as a painter, poet, playwright, and director. He co-founded the production company Urakypost in 2013. He was selected for Qumra Producer Lab 2022, Doha Film Institute’s Hazaya Film Script Lab in 2021, and was invited to L’Atelier Cannes 2022 with ‘The Blind Ferryman - Al Baseer’. In addition to his film work, Ali is an artist in contemporary and performance art. He won the Performance Art Award Switzerland 2011 and the prestigious Swiss Art Award 2012.
Contacts
-
Main Contact
Samir Jamal Aldin
- Company:
- Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion
- Phone:
- +41 44 456 30 20
- Email:
- samir@dvfilm.ch