HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL, New York 03

The Dream of Shahrazad

Filmmaker Francois Verster explores how music and storytelling can serve as an outlet for citizens to process political upheaval. Using the metaphor of Shahrazad–the princess in the classic tale of The 1001 (Arabian) Nights who saves lives by telling stories to the murderous Sultan Shahriyar–and filmed before, during, and after the so-called Arab Spring, the film weaves together a web of music, politics, and storytelling to explore the ways in which creativity and politics coincide in response to oppression. A series of unforgettable characters all draw their inspiration from The 1001 (Arabian) Nights, including a conductor who uses Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade suite as a tool for Istanbul political education, a young female Lebanese internet activist, a visual artist who finds his own "dream of Shahrazad", and a Cairo theater troupe who turn the testimonies of mothers of the Egyptian revolution martyrs into storytelling performances. This richly kaleidoscopic film is at once observational documentary, concert film, political meditation, and visual translation of an ever-popular symphonic and literary classic.

Filmmaker(s): 

Francois Verster

Country of Production: 

South Africa/Egypt/Jordan/France/The Netherlands

Year: 

2014

107m

Language(s): 

In English, Arabic and Turkish with English subtitles

Genre: 

Documentary

Filmmaker Bio(s): 

Francois Verster

Director, Producer, Camera, Editor

Francois Verster is a multiple-award winning independent documentary filmmaker based in Cape Town, South Africa.  His films generally follow “creative” observational approaches to social issues and have all won local and international awards and been broadcast around the world. He has taught documentary directing and film studies and his films have been used in various seminars on the intersection between creative documentary and social activism.

Film Website: 

The Dream of Shahrazad website

Presented in partnership with: 

Alwan for the Arts

Like The Dream of Shahrazad, Human Rights Watch has followed events in the Middle East and Turkey before, during, and since the Arab uprisings. Human Rights Watch has documented human rights abuses related to government reactions to mass protests in a number of countries, including arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, as well as abuses related to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.