Notturno

Shot over the course of three years between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, Notturno follows different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives. A group of female soldiers is shown standing guard, clearing empty buildings and relaxing in their barracks. A man in a small boat hunts for water fowl at night with the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. At a psychiatric hospital, a group of patients are given scripts to memorize for a play about the current state of their homeland and are shown rehearsing their parts. A boy, Ali, is paid five dollars a day to help a duck hunter. A couple admire the beauty of the night sky; the man then puts on his thob, picks up his drum, and walks the streets of the town playing the instrument and singing a song in praise of the prophet. At a school, as a form of therapy, children draw graphic pictures of the war atrocities they witnessed and describe their experiences to their teacher. One of the most cruel scenes is the one which shows a veiled Kurdish mother in the jail cell where her son had been tortured and killed. Another scene concerns a mother listening to phone messages from her daughter who has been kidnapped by Isis terrorists who are demanding a ransom.

Girato nel corso di tre anni sui confini fra Siria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Libano, Notturno mette a fuoco, da diverse prospettive, buio e luci della vita quotidiana degli abitanti della martoriata regione del Medio Oriente, fra la riconquista di Mosul e Raqqa, strappate all’ISIS nell'estate-autunno 2017, l’offensiva turca contro il Rojava curdo-siriano nell'autunno 2019 e l'uccisione del generale iraniano Soleimani per mano statunitense a Baghdad nel gennaio 2020.

Tourné pendant trois ans sur les frontières entre la Syrie, l'Irak, le Kurdistan et le Liban, Notturno se penche sous différents angles ; sur les hauts et les bas qui jalonnent le quotidien des habitants de cette région tourmentée du Moyen-Orient. Entre la reconquête de Mossoul et Raqqa, déchirée par Daech à l'été-automne 2017, l'offensive turque contre le Rojava à l'automne 2019 et l'assassinat du général iranien Qassem Soleimani par les États-Unis à Bagdad en janvier 2020.