Far from Bashar | |
---|---|
French | Loin de Bachar |
Directed by | Pascal Sanchez |
Written by | Pascal Sanchez |
Produced by | Nathalie Cloutier |
Starring | Adnan al-Mahamied Basmah Issa |
Cinematography | Pascal Sanchez |
Edited by | Natalie Lamoureux |
Music by | Serge Nakauchi Pelletier |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 73 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Languages | Arabic French English |
Far from Bashar (French : Loin de Bachar) is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Pascal Sanchez and released in 2020. The film profiles Adnan al-Mahamied and Basmah Issa, a married couple from Syria who have been living in Montreal since moving to Canada as refugees after participating in the uprisings against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. [1]
The film premiered on September 25, 2020, at the Cinémathèque québécoise. [2]
Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician who is the 19th and current president of Syria since 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000.
Rifaat Ali al-Assad is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad. He was the commanding officer of the ground operations of the 1982 Hama massacre ordered by Hafez al-Assad.
Major General Maher al-Assad is a Syrian military officer and commander of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, which, together with Syria's Military Intelligence, forms the core of the country's security forces. He is the younger brother of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and also a member of the Central Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath Party.
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The General Intelligence Directorate, also known as the General Security Directorate or Syrian GID, is the most important civil intelligence service of Syria and plays an important role in quelling internal dissent. The General Intelligence Directorate conducts surveillance of the Syrian population, directs foreign intelligence, and monitors activities in Lebanon.
Jacques Myard is a French politician and former diplomat who represented the 5th constituency of the Yvelines department in the National Assembly from 1993 to 2017. A member of The Republicans (LR), he has also served as Mayor of Maisons-Laffitte since 1989.
The al-Assad family, also known as the Assad dynasty, is a Syrian political family that has ruled Syria since Hafez al-Assad became president of Syria in 1971 under the Ba'ath Party. After his death, in June 2000, he was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad.
International reactions to the Syrian civil war ranged from support for the government to calls for the government to dissolve. The Arab League, United Nations and Western governments in 2011 quickly condemned the Syrian government's response to the protests which later evolved into the Syrian civil war as overly heavy-handed and violent. Many Middle Eastern governments initially expressed support for the government and its "security measures", but as the death toll mounted, especially in Hama, they switched to a more balanced approach, criticizing violence from both government and protesters. Russia and China vetoed two attempts at United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Syrian government.
The Syrian opposition is the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated Syrian anti-Assad groups with certain territorial control as an alternative Syrian government.
Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians or Syrian Coalition of Secular and Democratic Forces is the nucleus of a Syrian secular and democratic opposition that appeared during the 2011 Syrian uprising. It was created by the union of a dozen Muslim and Christian, Arab and Kurd parties, who called the minorities of Syria to support the fight against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The Coalition has also called for military intervention in Syria, under the form of a no-fly zone similar to that of Kosovo, with a safe zone and cities. The president of the coalition, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council, is Randa Kassis.
Mohammed Dib Zaitoun is a former director of the Syrian General Security Directorate and a close adviser of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He is one of many officials sanctioned by the European Union for their actions against protesters participating in the Syrian civil war. On 9 July 2019, Dib Zaitoun was appointed as the Director of National Security Bureau of the Ba'ath Party. His tenure ended on 18 January 2024.
Presidential elections were held in Syria on 3 June 2014. There is a scholarly consensus that the elections were not democratic. The result was a landslide victory for Bashar al-Assad, who received over 90% of the valid votes. He was sworn in for a third seven-year term on 16 July in the presidential palace in Damascus.
Nizar Nayyouf is a Syrian journalist, human rights activist, and dissident. He was one of the founding members of the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedom, a banned political organization in Syria, as well as editor-in-chief of صوت الديمقراطيِّة Sawt al-Democratiyya. He has criticized the Syrian government for human rights abuses, for which he was arrested and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in 1991, most of which he spent in Mezzeh prison outside Damascus.
Muhammad Bashar Kiwan, known as Bachar Kiwan, is a Syrian-French convicted felon, fraudster, and international fugitive. He is sought by the authorities in the Comoros Islands for his criminal convictions, which include money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement of public funds stemming from his role in masterminding the Comoros passport sales scandal. Additionally, he has been convicted in Kuwait of various white-collar crimes, including money laundering, criminal fraud, forgery, and bribery.
Natalie Lamoureux is a Canadian film editor. She is most noted for her work on the film A Woman, My Mother , for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Editing in a Documentary at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, and was a Prix Iris nominee for Best Editing in a Documentary at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards in 2020.
United Group for Publishing Advertising and Marketing (UG) (Arabic: المجموعة المتحدة للنشر والدعاية والتسويق) also known as United Group (Syria) or United Group (UG), is the largest private sector media group in the Syria.
Al-Khatib prison is a detention and torture center in the Muhajreen neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria. It is operated by Branch 251 of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate.
Majd Bahjat Suleiman, also known as Majd Suleiman or Majid Suleiman, is a Dubai-based Syrian businessman and son of the former Syrian ambassador to Jordan and intelligence chief Bahjat Suleiman. He is the owner of Syria's largest media conglomerate, United Group (UG) which also operates under the trade name AWI Company and is affiliated with Al Waseet International.
Nathalie Cloutier is a Canadian film producer, associated with the National Film Board of Canada. The executive producer of the French and Eastern Canadian documentary units, she has been a recipient of several Canadian Screen Award and Prix Iris nominations for her work.