DAMASCUS ROOF AND TALES OF PARADISE

by Soudade KAADAN

52 minutes, 2010
Production : Aljazeera Documentary Channel / QATAR

Syria has a strong tradition of stories and folk tales: full of colourful images – flying fish and friendly serpents, they are passed down from father to son. However, as the years go by these stories are being lost. In the old part of Damascus the familiar landscape of souks and casbahs, the backdrop of so many stories, is being modernised, raising the fear that the tales themselves will disappear.

Soudade KAADAN is a Syrian director, born in France in 1979. She studied theatre in Syria and film in the Lebanon. She has made films for the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNICEF and Aljazeera’s Documentary Channel. In 2010 her first documentary “Looking for Pink” won the Martine Filippi Award at the 29th URTI Grand Prix. Her second documentary “Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise”, won second prize in the Muhr Arab Documentary category of the Dubai Film Festival.