Movie

Mapping Lessons

2020 · 61 min

A dense, essayistic collage that asks you to piece together history and memory from fragments, rewarding patience with a haunting sense of displacement.

Directed by: Philip Rizk
Genres: Documentary
Starring: Farah Barqawi, Aylin Çankaya, Walid

Overview: Through the diary entries of the film's main protagonist K., we learn about her return from post-revolutionary Russia to her home in Greater Syria, in which, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, individual communities are trying to find a way to autonomy. Thanks to the juxtaposition with the Russian past, presented through shots from Soviet film classics such as Esfir Shub's Spain or Kinoglaz by Dziga Vertov, and the Syrian present, portrayed through various mobile phone footage, the director draws parallels between two incompatible realities and creates a multimedia essay on neo-colonialism and independence.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

Directed by: Philip Rizk
Genres: Documentary
Starring: Farah Barqawi, Aylin Çankaya, Walid

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: melancholicstrength 2 of 3
earneststrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: colonialism
identity
politics
memory
freedom
Places: big city
countryside
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: nonlinear
documentary
Content intensity: Gore none
Language mild
Violence mild
Sex none

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	0
Humour	1
Realism	8
Romance	1
Tension	4
Darkness	6
Complexity	8
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: documentary
Directed by: Philip Rizk
Starring: Farah Barqawi, Aylin Çankaya, Walid, Saeed al-Wakeel, Matthieu Rey, Osama al-Hossein
Music: Nadah El Shazly
Runtime: 61 min
Country: Egypt, Germany
Languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Ukrainian

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Mapping Lessons

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