Daraya: A Library Under the Bombs

Territoires cinématographiques is a dialogue between live performance and cinema, devised in collaboration with Utopia cinemas in Avignon. It’s a daily programme of film screenings, after which the public meet and talk with theatre artists, choreographers, filmmakers, activists, critics and journalists invited to the Festival d’Avignon. This space explores the intimate relationships that these guests maintain between disciplines and with the world. It’s a place to take a broader look at the themes brought to the stage, the territories of the guest language and by the Café des idées. 

Daraya: A Library Under Bombs

By Delphine Minoui // Syria - France // Documentary // 2018 // 64 min // Original version with French subtitles

Between past and present, this film follows three friends after they meet during the Syrian revolution of 2011. Despite the relentless bombardment of Damascus, and never giving up their cultural resistance and pacifist stance, they salvage books from the rubble to build a clandestine library that soon becomes a haven of peace, freedom and democracy. Their story, meticulously filmed and documented, speaks to us of hope and survival.

Screening followed by a discussion with Delphine Minoui.
Moderated by Oriane Jeancourt, editor-in-chief of Transfuge.