"Tomb No. 8" film, creation of cinema on the land of displacement

Rojava Film Commune Company (a film production company that has participated in many local and international film production festivals) has completed filming “Tomb No. 8” in northern Aleppo countryside, where the film highlights the state of war and displacement in the region.

The film is based on a novel of the same name, “Tomb No. 8” which was written by a young writer from Afrin called Hind Abdalo, whose novels won the first prize at the festival of (Literature and Women’s Art in northeastern Syria), and was directed by Mohieddin Arslan that it took about two months to filming.

Mohieddin Arslan told North-Press about the motivation behind the film’s production, “we suffered a huge amount of pain during our displacement from Afrin, there were a lot of details and events that took place in Afrin and should be transformed into films.”

The film tells the story of a child whose house was bombed when Turkey and the Syrian armed opposition groups had launched a military campaign against Afrin region on January 20 last year.

The film is about the number 8, where the child is eight years old, the tomb holds the number 8 , star number 8, and many coincidences that carry the same number. According to Arslan the length of the film after editing could be about eight minutes.

Regarding the difficulties faced the stage of filming,  Arslan said: “We had a lot of difficulties, including the lack of staff working in the field of cinema, the lack of photographic mechanisms such as lighting, and the lack of equipment for recording sound and camera carriers that help to move the camera”. He pointed out that they were using car lighting in filming and use the photographers as extra in one of the film’s scenes.

The premiere of the film will be for Afrin IDPs in the camps in northern Aleppo countryside, the director said:

“We will display the film in the camps of Afrin IDPs and in the villages of northern Aleppo countryside according to a program, then we’ll move to show it in festivals.”

Arsalan said: “There are many stories that are waiting to be films, and our goal is to introduce the world to our case and culture”.

He added: “The wars that we have been subjected to are because the others have no idea about us, and we want to move away the danger of war and live in peace.” He pointed out that the message of art can achieve a kind of rapprochement between the political blocs.

Zilan Suleiman an administrative in the production of the film said that the spirit of cooperation between the staff and the love of work contributed a lot to the achievement of the film, pointing out that their main goal is to provide a message about what the displaced people of Afrin have been going through.

It is worth mentioning that “Rojava Film Commune Company has made many short films, including (Aras – Red Olives – Flash – Traveling Eyes – Creators of Hope) for a number of directors, and some of the short films havewon many awards at the Kobani Film Festival, which was organized between 13-19 November last year.