Jumhuriyat Al-Samt
Diana El Jeiroudi
Germany, France, Syria, Qatar, Italy | 2021 | 183 min
Swiss Premiere
Languages : Arabic, English, German, Kurdish
Subtitles : French, English
Does it begin with the camera she received aged seven, or when life collapses in Damas, splintered by dictatorship, war and international political corruption? Republic of Silence is like a fresco that encompasses more than a decade, interweaving the daily life of a humdrum existence in Berlin—lulled by solidarity and love—with the memories of a lost time.
It begins with the camera received aged seven. Or is it when life collapses in Damas, splintered by dictatorship, war and international political corruption? Republic of Silence is a fresco that encompasses more than a decade, interweaving the daily life of a humdrum existence in Berlin – lulled by solidarity and love – with memories of a lost time; that of life in Syria, of an existence turned upside down by conflicts and far too often overwhelmed by fear (“Evil makes a very loud and terrifying sound”), of struggle and of resistance. Diana El Jeiroudi whittles the film in the style of memories, through snippets, sounds, textures – that of skin, of bodies inhabited by the past and by the weight of trauma. Sometimes she seems to whisper, or perhaps even remain silent, as she had to as a child, to avoid revealing an Iraqi accent. Through comings and goings through space and time, the filmmaker ultimately interrogates the notion of “home”, in a film that powerfully and gracefully succeeds in inextricably interweaving the political with the personal.
Emilie Bujès
Morning Fears, 2012
Dolls, 2007
The Pot, 2005