AAMELAT. DAY LABORERS OF WAR (Spain, 2023, 60′)

Saturday, October 5, at 7 pm, Cinema Massimo, Screen 3

  Buy tickets online

Direction, photography and editing: Eva Parey
Screenplay: Georgette Pascual, Mònica Pallí
Music: Bruno Franquet
Production: Films de l’Orient, Frame 77

After the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, 5.6 million people fled the country to seek refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt (the states bordering Syria). Lebanon has a population of six million, 25% of them are Syrian refugees. This is the historical and geopolitical context behind the documentary set on the border between Lebanon and Syria. Catalan director and photographer Eva Parey follows a group of Syrian women and girls who have been forced to flee Syria because of the war conflict, finding refuge in Lebanon. In that ‘temporary’ and inhospitable accommodation, the women are ‘war labourers’. They find themselves in a foreign land, forced to work in the fields under the control of foremen. A life of toil, survival, distance, and abuse documented with a reportage style to put into the foreground people trapped in a limbo.

Eva Parey (Barcelona, Spain, 1971) is a photojournalist and filmmaker. Together with journalist Pep Martinez, she directed, adapted and photographed the documentary Deep Roots, about the historic memory of the Island of Formentera. The movie is based on the lifestyle of a group of retired farmers who were born between 1920 and 1945. Aamelat. Day Laborers of War is her second documentary.

Filmography: Deep Roots (2020, doc), Aamelat. Jornaleras de la guerra (2023, doc).