Since 2014, photographer Issa Touma travels back to his hometown Aleppo on a regular basis. For more than two years he captured everyday encounters with fellow citizens of Aleppo, a city torn apart by war.

Touma returns to clear an unexploded bomb from his parents’ apartment and to visit artist friends whose works he is collecting for an upcoming exhibition in Singapore. Getting to Aleppo is getting harder every day: at first, he travels by bus from Beirut. The buses are making all kind of detours through the desert to avoid the front lines. When the buses stopped running because of sniper fire, he travelled by car, usually in a convoy.

Greetings from Aleppo is an homage to the resilience of the people who try – sometimes to an absurd level – to continue to live the lives they led before the war. From car lovers who drive their polished classic cars through the devastated streets, to the girls who giggle about the way media report about the situation in their city.

Authors

Issa Touma is a photographer and curator based in Aleppo (Syria). His photographic work can be found in international collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Finding himself isolated from the international art community in his own country, Touma established the Black and White Gallery, the first photography gallery in the Middle East, in 1992. After its closure in 1996, Touma founded Le Pont, an independent art organisation and gallery that promotes freedom of expression and stimulates the local art scene through international events.

In 1997, he started the International Photography Festival Aleppo, which despite the horrors and uncertainties of the conflict, continues to take place every year. In 2012, shortly after the war broke out, he initiated Art Camping. This event in the form of workshops counters violence with artistic interventions. Its aim is to bring young people from various religious and ethnic backgrounds together, encouraging them to express themselves through culture.

website

In 2012, Floor graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy. After graduation she worked on video art related projects and developed the short documentary Bekerrapers (The Cup Collectors) with production company KeyDocs.

In 2014 she made her international debut as a documentary filmmaker with Paradijsbestormers (Storming Paradise) in collaboration with production company KeyDocs and BNN. In 2015, together with Syrian artist Issa Touma and Dutch co-director Thomas Vroege, she made the international acclaimed short documentary 9 Days - From My Window In Aleppo. This short documentary was shown on film festivals around the world and won the European Film Award for best short 2016.

In 2016 she also made here debut as a fiction director with In Vrijheid (In Exile) which was nominated for a the Dutch Golden Calfs Best Television Drama and won Best Actress. Together again with Issa Touma and Thomas Vroege, she made a follow-up story on life in Aleppo: Greetings from Aleppo.

Today Floor works on the feature length documentary Last Male Standing and is developing her first fiction feature.

website

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Thomas Vroege (b. 1988, Rotterdam) is a filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Vroege graduated in audiovisual design at AKV | St. Joost in Breda with the short documentary The Son and The Stranger. This film won a WILDCARD of Dutch Film Fund and was broadcast by VPRO. His experimental debut film debut So Help Me God, a visual journey through the world of finance, was screened in the Goudenkalf- and Debut Competition at the Dutch Film Festival.

His most recent film 9 Days - From My Window In Aleppo, about the start of the Syrian uprising in the city of Aleppo, was screened at leading international festivals such as DOK Leipzig, Clermont-Ferrand and IFFR. His film plan Theater Of The Crowd was awarded with the IDFA Media Fund Documentary prize in 2015.

As an editor, Vroege worked a.o. with photographer Ad Nuis on Oil & Paradise, a multimedia installation as a road trip in which Nuis ironically examines the newly acquired wealth of the former Soviet state Azerbaijan. It was shown on Photo Festival Naarden, Dutch Photo Museum and the International Photography Biennial Beijing. His style as editor is characterized by a strong team player and ability to create.

Besides, in collaboration with Mark Jan van Tellingen, Vroege develops PARANOIA.WATCH, an index / smart watch app that attempts to measure the impact of terrorism on society. Since 2012 Vroege is an advisor to the Dutch Cultural Media Fund. In 2013 he was advisor to the documentary committee for the Dutch Film Festival.

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Platforms

Still from Greetings from Aleppo
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
Still from Greetings from Aleppo
© Issa Touma
World première Greetings from Aleppo at the exclusive opening of the IFFR in 2017
World première Greetings from Aleppo at the exclusive opening of the IFFR in 2017
World première Greetings from Aleppo at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the Netherlands in 2017
World première Greetings from Aleppo at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the Netherlands in 2017
Avant première Greetings from Aleppo at IFFR in 2017
Avant première Greetings from Aleppo at IFFR in 2017
Avant première Greetings from Aleppo at IFFR in 2017
Avant première Greetings from Aleppo at IFFR in 2017
Floor van der Meulen receives the DIG Award 2017 in the category 'Reportage Medium' at the DIG Festival, Riccione.
Floor van der Meulen receives the DIG Award 2017 in the category 'Reportage Medium' at the DIG Festival, Riccione.
Q&A with Floor van der Meulen at DIG Festival, Riccione (IT) in June 2017.
Q&A with Floor van der Meulen at DIG Festival, Riccione (IT) in June 2017.

Film

To realize the documentary, Touma worked together with the Dutch film makers Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen. It’s the second time the three worked together: in 2015 they made the short film 9 Days – From My Window in Aleppo, which has been shown on more than 70 film festivals worldwide and won an European Film Award for Best Short Film in 2016.

The film had its world première at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in February 2017. An adapted version of Greetings from Aleppo currently tours the international film festivals.

Greetings from Aleppo is nominated for the L’OR Gouden Kalf Competition in het category ‘Short Documentary’. De Gouden Kalveren (‘Golden Calves’) are one of the most prestigious film prizes in The Netherlands, and are awarded during the Netherlands Film Festival.

Award

Winner DIG Award 2017, category Reportage Medium
Nomination L'OR Gouden Kalf at Netherlands Film Festival 2017, category Short Documentary

  • 21.10.201822.10.2018Kurzfilmfestival Kufstein (DE)

    17.10.201821.10.2018dokumentART, European Film Festival, Neubrandenburg (DE)

    12.10.201819.12.2018Festival International du Film des Droits de l’Homme de Guadeloupe (FR)

    28.06.201808.07.2018Arab Cinema Festival, Paris (FR)

    27.06.201830.06.2018WARM Festival, Sarajevo (B-H)

    22.06.201829.06.2018Valencia International Film Festival Cinema Jove (ES)

    16.04.201824.04.2018Fribourg International Film Festival (CH)

    15.03.201802.04.2018Mecal Pro, International Short Film and Animation Festival, Barcelona (ES)

    14.03.201821.03.2018Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg (DE)

    14.03.201818.03.2018Glasgow Short Film Festival (UK)

    14.03.201818.12.2018REGARD - Saguenay International Short Film Festival (CA)

    01.12.201710.12.2017Verín International Short Film Festival (ES)

    27.11.201802.12.2017Festival Tous Courts, Aix-en-Provence (FR)

    25.11.201702.12.2017China International New Media Short Film Festival, Shenzhen (CH)

    17.11.201726.11.2017International Bosphorus Film Festival, Istanbul (TR)

    15.11.201720.11.2017Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (DE)

    08.11.201715.11.2017Panorama Internacional Coisa de Cinema, Salvador (BR)

    30.10.201705.11.2017DOK Leipzig (DE)

    14.10.201721.10.2017International Short Film Festival of Cyprus (CY)

    07.10.201712.10.2017Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival (EG)

    06.10.201715.10.2017Sedicicorto International Film Festival (IT)

    05.10.201708.10.2017Heart of Gold International Film Festival (AU)

    21.09.201730.09.2017DTLA Film Festival, Los Angeles (US)

    20.09.201729.09.2017Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht (NL)

    19.09.201724.09.2017Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, Bristol (UK)

    13.09.201723.09.2017Quebec City Film Festival (CA)

    23.08.201726.08.2017Mediterranean Film Festival (B-H)

    10.08.201714.08.2017Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt (DE)

    27.07.201730.07.2017Kinemastik International Short Film Festival (MT)

    08.07.201716.07.2017Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival (PT)

    23.06.201725.06.2017DIG Festival (IT)

    22.06.201726.06.2017NexT International Film Festival (RO)

    10.05.201717.05.2017DocuTIFF - Tirana International Documentary Film Festival (AL)

    04.05.201714.05.2017DOCUMENTAMADRID (ES)

    19.04.201723.04.2017Kyiv International Short Film Festival (UK)

    05.04.201709.04.2017Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen (NL)

    24.03.201701.04.2017Movies That Matter (NL)

    23.03.201706.04.2017Vilnius International Film Festival (LT)

    25.01.201705.02.2017International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL)

  • Video: 16’36” min, HD (1920×1080) digital movie with stereo sound, Arabic (and some Armenian) spoken, subtitles in English / Dutch

  • Issa Touma (Camera and story)
    Thomas Vroege (Montage & script)
    Floor van der Meulen (Montage & script)
    Tom Jansen (Sound design)
    Darius Timmer (Music)
    Susan Osman (Translation)
    Jos de Putter (Producer - DeepFocus WebDocs)

News

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Events

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In the media

  • Photographer Issa Touma keeps travelling to Aleppo to tell its everyday stories

    Jan van Tienen, VICE, 31 January 2017 Read more »
  • World première Greetings from Aleppo

    Pf, 21 January 2017 Read more »

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