Wiam Simav Bedirxan

Last updated

Wiam Simav Bedirxan is a Syrian Kurdish documentary filmmaker from Homs, who co-directed the 2014 film Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait with exiled filmmaker Usama Muhammad. Bedirxan documented the Siege of Homs and sent its footage via the internet to Muhammad in Paris in order to make Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait, which had its world premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. [1] [2]

Wiam Simav Bedirxan was born in Saudi Arabia, where her mother was a teacher for five years. The family returned to Syria in the 1980s and proceeded to settle in Homs in 1997. She attended University in Aleppo [3] after which she became an elementary school teacher in Homs and began to film what happens in Homs. [4] She fled Syria through Istanbul and from there to Paris to work on the film Silvered Water, Syria Self Portrait [3] with Usama Muhammad and attend the film's world premiere in Cannes. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliette Binoche</span> French actress, artist and dancer (born 1964)

Juliette Binoche is a French actress and dancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivier Assayas</span> French film director, screenwriter and film critic

Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Assayas is known for his slow-burning period pieces, psychological thrillers, neo-noirs and French comedies. His work has become synonymous with the film movement known as the New French Extremity and has collaborated frequently with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. The son of filmmaker Jacques Rémy, Assayas began his career as a critic for influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Here he wrote about the World Cinema and its film auteurs who would later influence his own works. Assayas made several shorts, and then made the leap from writer to screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usama ibn Munqidh</span> Banu Munqidh poet and historian

Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī or Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arab Muslim poet, author, faris (knight), and diplomat from the Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria. His life coincided with the rise of several medieval Muslim dynasties, the arrival of the First Crusade, and the establishment of the crusader states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euzhan Palcy</span> French film director

Euzhan Palcy is a Martinican-born film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films are known to explore themes of race, gender, and politics, with an emphasis on the perpetuated effects of colonialism. Palcy's first feature film Sugar Cane Alley (1983) received numerous awards including the César Award for Best First Feature Film. For directing A Dry White Season (1989), she became the first black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio, that being by MGM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mia Hansen-Løve</span> French film director

Mia Hansen-Løve is a French film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She has won several accolades for her work. Her first feature film, All Is Forgiven, won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2007 along with Céline Sciamma's Water Lilies. Hansen-Løve's film Father of My Children won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Hansen-Løve was awarded the status of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2016, she won the Silver Bear for Best Director for her film Things to Come at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as becoming a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xavier Dolan</span> Canadian film director, actor, voice actor and screenwriter

Xavier Dolan-Tadros is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2009 for his feature film directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he also starred in, wrote, and produced, and which premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section and won three awards from the program.

The Box of Life is a 2002 Syrian-French drama film directed by Usama Muhammad. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Ossama Mohammed is a Syrian film director and screenwriter. His film, The Box of Life, was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adèle Haenel</span> French actress

Adèle Haenel is a French actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two César Awards from seven nominations and one Lumières Award from two nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Céline Sciamma</span> French director and screenwriter

Céline Sciamma is a French screenwriter and film director. She is especially known for her films Girlhood (2014), My Life as a Courgette (2016), and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), winning many nominations and awards for her films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Homs</span> Siege in Syria

The siege of Homs was a military confrontation between the Syrian military and the Syrian opposition in the city of Homs, a major rebel stronghold during the Syrian Civil War. The siege lasted three years from May 2011 to May 2014, and resulted in an opposition withdrawal from the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orwa Nyrabia</span>

Orwa Nyrabia is an independent documentary film festival artistic director, producer, filmmaker, trainer, human rights defender and co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria. Nyrabia is a resident of Berlin, Germany, since the end of 2013 In January 2018 Nyrabia became the director of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana El Jeiroudi</span>

Diana El Jeiroudi, is a Berlin-based, Syrian independent film director and producer. El Jeiroudi’s films as director were celebrated at many festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, IDFA, DokLeipzig, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX… among others. Her producing credits include the Cannes Film Festival 2014 selection Silvered Water, the IDFA 2013 selection The Mulberry House, among others. She was the first Syrian to be a juror in Cannes Film Festival in 2014, when she was part of the first Documentary Film Award jury in the festival. Together with her partner Orwa Nyrabia, El Jeiroudi was also the first Syrian known to be invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. El Jeiroudi was also a co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria and DOX BOX e.V. non-profit association in Germany.

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait is a Syrian documentary film about the Syrian Civil War, directed by Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan. The film premiered in the Special Screenings section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

The 19th Busan International Film Festival was held in South Korea from October 2 to October 11, 2014, and was hosted by Ken Watanabe and Moon So-ri. A total of 312 films from 79 countries were screened with total attendance of 226,473. Hong Kong director Ann Hui receives the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award. The closing film was Gangster Payday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Garrel</span> French actress

Esther Garrel is a French actress. She is most known for her roles in 17 Girls (2011), Jealousy (2013), Call Me by Your Name (2017), and Thirst Street (2017).

The following are representations of the Syrian Civil War in popular culture.

References

  1. "Siege of Homs film gets Cannes ovation". Khaleej Times. Agence France-Presse. 17 May 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  2. Young, Deborah (15 May 2014). "'Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait': Cannes Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Wiam Simav Bedirxan, réalisatrice d'"Eau argentée" : "J'aurais tellement voulu filmer plus !"". Télérama (in French). 17 December 2014. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  4. 1 2 Vivarelli, Nick (17 May 2014). "Cannes: Syrian Director Talks 'Silvered Water,' Filming Revolution on Cell Phones". Variety. Retrieved 18 May 2014.