Queens of Syria (2014)
The film is available to stream on True Story.
Queens of Syria tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women, the timeless Ancient Greek tragedy all about the plight of women in war.
What followed was an extraordinary moment of cross-cultural contact across millennia, in which women born in 20th century Syria found a blazingly vivid mirror of their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, uprooted, enslaved,and bereaved by the Trojan War.
Thanks to all the women who took part in this project and made this film possible.
Selected Press
BBC Arts – How 50 Women Made Award Winning Documentary, 2015
Screen Daily - Yasmin Fedda talks Queens of Syria, 2015
Independent on Sunday – Queens of Syria, exploring a modern retelling
of Euripides’s The Trojan Women, 2015
Variety - Film Review ‘Queens of Syria’, 2014
Director – Yasmin Fedda / Editor- Greg Pittard / Music – Robin Schlochtermeier / Sound Mix – Matt Alani / Grade – Ross Birbeck / Trailer Editor- Adam Thomas / Producers – Itab Azzam & Georgina Paget / Executive Producers – Charlotte Eager & William Stirling / Theatre Director – Omar Abu Sada / Actor’s trainer – Nanda Mohammad / Scenography – Bisanne Al Sharif
Screened at numerous international film festivals including Glasgow FF, Carthage FF, Dublin FF, and Abu Dhabi FF.
Commissioned by Refuge Productions. Funded by Sanad.
TV version on BBC Arabic broadcast November 2014
Prizes
Winner of the Black Pearl Award for Best Documentary Director from the Arab World at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, 2014
Special Mention from the UNHCR at the 3rd edition of the Human Rights Film Festival in Tunis 2014 (Human Screen Festival 2014)
UNHCR/CONARE Director’s Prize at Cinemigrante Festival, Argentina, 2015
Best Documentary Award at International Festival of Women’s Film, Sale, Morocco, 2015
Bronze Tanit for Best Documentary, Carthage Film Festival, Tunis, 2015
Safi Faye Credif Award, Unesco, Best Female Director, Carthage Film Festival, Tunis, 2015
Best Documentary Award, Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, USA, 2016
Audience award, Twin Cities Arab Film festival, USA, 2016