The prestigious Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland wraps up this weekend, after hosting the world premiere of dozens of documentaries.
One of those world premieres, the feature documentary Amany, Behind the Lines, centers on Amany Al-Ali, considered to be the first female cartoonist in Idlib, Syria. Her city became a hotbed of protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad beginning in 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring and, despite enormous risk, Al-Ali has used her cartooning skill to critique the chaotic developments in Idlib for a dozen years now.
Alisar Hasan and Alaa Amer directed the 73-minute long feature documentary.
Cartoonist Amany Al-Ali
Clin d’Oeil Films
Amany Al-Ali “draws the life of her town, a bastion of jihadist groups that are attempting to overthrow President Assad since 2011,” the Visions du Réel program notes. “Armed with her pen, she is struggling against Islamist authority and traditional patriarchy. But for how much longer will she have the strength to keep fighting, among the ruins of her town?”
(L-R) Guillaume Vandenberghe, Alisar Hasan and Vincent Cohen attend Canneseries April 18, 2023.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
A shorter version of Amany, Behind the Lines played at Canneseries earlier this month as part of a six-episode documentary series called Draw For Change!, which profiles the work of female cartoonists in Russia, India, the U.S., Mexico, Egypt, and Syria. The series from showrunners/creators Guillaume Vandenberghe and Vincent Coen earned Best Documentary Series award at the international event on the French Riviera. Along with Alisar Hasan and Alaa Amer, directors of the Draw For Change! films include Oscar nominee Laura Nix, Nada Riyadh, Karen Vazquez Guadarrama, Sama Pana and Anna Moiseenko.
Sales of Draw For Change! are being handled by Autlook. The series is produced by Clin d’Oeil Films.
“[Draw For Change!] blends documentary and animation in exploration of themes such as femicide and female representation. In the face of censorship and death threats, these rebellious artists strive to change their society and refuse to give in,” according to a synopsis on the Canneseries site. “A true emotional uppercut with a mix of live-action shots and animated sequences… the series’ narration and style are as demanding as the issues discussed.”
Hasan, the co-director of Amany, Behind the Lines, earned an Emmy nomination for co-writing The Cave, the National Geographic documentary directed and co-written by her husband, two-time Oscar nominated filmmaker Feras Fayyad. Fayyad’s brother Abdo Fayyad is the director of photography for Behind the Lines.