“The First Day”: A film within the youth cinema project

The Syrian National Film Organization has finished the shooting of the short feature film ‘First Day’, which was produced by a grant given by the Youth Cinema Support Project.

Lotus Masoud wrote and directed the film as her first directorial experience with the seventh art, after two experiments in writing the theatrical text.

The First Day saw the launch of the new season in preparation for the Youth and Short Film Festival.

The film talks about May 22, 2018 when finally the terrorist mortars that had fallen like rain on Damascus city stopped, after the governmental forces retook all suburbs around Damascus city.

The film highlights this day through more than one case and how the director dealt with the news that the mortars and shells had stopped falling after many years from the death that these mortars had caused.

Masoud said: “I cannot deny the anxiety I had before entering the filming site, especially as it is my first directorial experience and that I may be the youngest on the site, but once I entered and did my mission as a director, the feeling that dominated me completely turned into great enthusiasm and responsibility towards all the details and immersion in the completion of the task entrusted to me”.

After the completion of the film and while waiting for its release Masoud found herself considering a repeat of the experience.

The cast of the film includes:  Loris Qizq, Iyad Issa, Amina Abbas, Hassan Khalil, Ayah Mahmoud, Mulham Bishr, Alaa Zahr Al-Din, Randa Krushan and Lord Damaski.

O. al-Mohammad