CinemaNA: Under the Sky of Damascus by Hebah Khalid, Talal Derki, and Ali Wajeeh

A tight-knit group of young Syrian women embark upon a radical project: producing a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations. Farah, Eliana, Inana, Souhir, and Grace want to blow the whistle on women's oppression, though they know their production will make it even harder for them to get work. Collaborating with exiled Syrian filmmakers Heba Khaled (making her feature debut) Talal Derki (the Oscar-nominated Of Fathers and Sons)—and Ali Wajeeh on the ground in Damascus—the women fan out through the war-weary city to gather individual stories that will form the basis of their play.

Biographies

Heba Khaled — Co-Director & Writer
Heba Khaled was born in Damascus and studied Arabic Literature at Damascus University. She worked as a freelance fixer for CNN, and Reuters in Damascus and Beirut between 2011 and 2013 and worked as a writer and executive producer on these and other Arab media channels. In 2014, she began with her first short film “People of the Wasteland.” The same year, she moved to Berlin where she assisted the filmmaker Talal Derki in the direction of his film Of Fathers and Sons, which won the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in 2018 and was Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature in 2020.

Talal Derki — Co-Director
Talal Derki was born in Damascus (1977) and has been based in Berlin since 2013. He studied film directing in Athens. Talal Derki’s short films and feature-length documentaries received many awards at various festivals. Both of his films Return to Homs and Of Fathers and Sons won the Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and 2018.

He was Oscar-nominated for an Academy Award and was the winner of the German Film Awards (Lola) in 2019 for Of Fathers and Sons. He became a member of the Academy in the same year.

Ali Wajeeh — Co-Director
Ali Wajeeh was born in Lattakia (1985) and has been working as a film critic for Arab newspapers and websites for many years. He wrote several Arab TV series, award-winning short movies, and plays. With his extensive knowledge of Syrian and Arab film production, he has also been a drama consultant for production companies and platforms.

Ali Wajeeh was born in Lattakia (1985) and has been working as a film critic for Arab newspapers and websites for many years. He wrote several Arab TV series, award-winning short movies, and plays. With his extensive knowledge of Syrian and Arab film production, he has also been a drama consultant for production companies and platforms.