Iraqi Cinema Days Festival honors Syrian artists

Baghdad, (ST) – The closing ceremony of the second session of the second Iraqi Cinema Days festival in Baghdad witnessed the honoring of a number of Syrian artists, after a distinguished Syrian participation as the “guest of honor” of the festival.

The Supreme Authority of the festival, which was sponsored by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani, honored the artists Duraid Lahham, Sabah Al-Jazaery and Basil Al-Khatib by awarding them with the shield of the festival.

The film “Al-Hakim” by director Basil Al-Khatib was greatly admired by the participants in the activities of the festival, in which twenty-three Iraqi films were screened, most of them are produced, directed and starred by of Iraqi youth.

The Iraqi Minister of Culture Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani praised the pioneering role of Syrian cinema at the Arab level.

In a statement to SANA reporter in Baghdad, Al-Badrani said: Baghdad is proud that Syrian cinema is the guest of honor at the Iraqi Cinema Days festival, given the Syrian artists’ efforts to enrich Arab culture.

Al-Badrani pointed out that most Iraqis like the Syrian drama works because the Syrian drama is a school in Arab artistic creativity.

For his part, the artist Duraid Lahham expressed his high appreciation for the great hospitality that the Syrian artists received from the government and the people in Iraq. He stressed that the people in the two brotherly countries are one people facing common challenges and carrying one aspiration.

Iraqi artists praised the Syrian participation in the festival. They stressed that it left an impressive imprint that embodies Syrian artistic creativity.

The Iraqi artist, Ahmed Hassan Musa, Director General of the Department of Cinema and Theater, expressed the Iraqi artists’ pride in the participation of senior Syrian artists in the festival, which represents the distinguishing mark of this session.

The artist, Mahmoud Abu Al-Abbas confirmed that Damascus is the capital of the civilized world, and that its cinematic, dramatic, theatrical and literary productions are a creative achievement.

In turn, the artist Mounir Hadi emphasized that Syrian creativity is not equal in its intellectual and artistic values, which he is keen to confirm as a sublime human message.

Raghda Sawas