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Sokun Al Sulhufat

Turtles are Always Home
Forum Expanded 2017
© Rawane Nassif
I left Lebanon in 2006. For the past 10 years I have lived in seven countries, 10 cities, and 21 homes. I have slept in 21 beds, cooked in 21 kitchens, cleaned 21 bathrooms, written on 21 desks, and locked 21 doors behind me. I packed all of my life into two suitcases and a backpack. The rest stayed behind. Somebody somewhere uses my bed, somebody somewhere has my shoes, somebody somewhere maybe remembers me in those fragmented traces of mine.
I was there. But now I am here. In Qatar. In a fake Venice with colorful houses.
Houses have memories too. They hide them under their windowsills, tuck them in layers of paint and sometimes whisper them to birds passing by. I wonder whose memories these houses will keep. I live here but I am unable to leave a trace. I try to attach myself to the walls, dirty them, mark them… but I fail. They are constantly cleaned, watched, and protected. I caress them instead. And I film them, lest I forget.
Home is where the heart is, they say. I disagree. My heart is everywhere. It left with the music. Like a turtle, I am always home.
by Rawane Nassif Qatar / Lebanon 2016 Arabic 12’ Colour

Crew

Written and Directed by Rawane Nassif
Cinematography Rawane Nassif
Editing Rawane Nassif
Music Rawane Nassif
Sound Design Victore Bresse
Sound Rawane Nassif
Assistant Director Idris Al Hassan
Producers Rawane Nassif, Doha Film Institute

Produced by

Rawane Nassif

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Rawane Nassif

Rawane Nassif, born in 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon, has a BFA in filmmaking from Université Saint Joseph in Lebanon and an MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Alberta in Canada. She is a filmmaker, author and researcher. Her work addresses space, traditions, identities, displacement, and memory. She currently works with the Doha Film Institute as a film researcher.

Filmography

2002 Draw Me Palestine; 2 min. 2004 Leaded Unleaded; 35 min. · Serheldan; 18 min. · Dalil; 18 min. · On the Road; 18 min. 2005 My Ball; 18 min. 2007 No Coke; 2 min. · Bike Love; 15 min. 2009 Zoukak Migration; 32 min. 2012 Three Women in the Jailoo; 31 min. 2016 Sokun Al Sulhufat

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2017