7th Youth Cinema and Short Film Festival aims at supporting amateur and professional filmmakers

The Youth Cinema and Short Films Festival opened at the Opera House in Damascus on Thursday in its 7th edition with the participation of 23 films.

 The festival, organized by the General Establishment for Cinema, is part of the national Youth Cinema Support Project that is aimed at encouraging and supporting young amateur and professional film makers, writers and directors.

Among these films, was the short feature film, (A Very Ordinary Day) which was screened at Dar Al-Assad for Culture and Arts on Sunday. The film narrates the story of a taxi driver, who is touring the streets and meets many people affected by the current circumstances.

  Anas Zouahri, the director of the film “A Very Normal Day” told Syria Times e-newspaper: “’A very normal day’ reflects the real life of people and it talks about daily constant suffering of all social classes. It is just like a circle and that all people enter into it regardless of their principles and classes”.

 He went on to say: “It is my first experience.  It is not easy to be a director.. We get ideas from our daily life.. Our concentration was on dialogues that attract the audience and make them enjoy watching the film. 

Anas believes that the festival is a chance to gain experience and be acquainted with other talents.  The five-day festival also screened another short feature film entitled “The First Bullet Diary” which talks about belongingness.

Youssef Haidar, the director of the film, said: “We as young directors want to show a new style and techniques in our works.”

“May be the ideas of some films are not mature enough, we need more experience to have a promising future in directing to develop our local cinema through holding such cultural activities”. He added.

 Interviewed by: Nada Haj Khidr