Curator's Statement
Independent Syrian Cinema: the Mirror Challenge
About the Curator
A Syrian independent film producer, filmmaker and a co-organiser/programme director of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria. A graduate from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus with a degree in acting, Orwa Nyrabia played the main role in Yousri Nasrallah’s The Door to the Sun (Cannes Official Selection 2004) and worked as a first assistant director in several fiction films. In 2002 he co-founded Proaction Film, an independent film production and distribution company. Trained as a film producer at INA/Sorbonne in France, he is now producing fiction and documentary internationally such as the documentary film Dolls – A Woman from Damascus (IDFA, Nyon 2008). As a filmmaker, Orwa also makes documentaries and repeatedly participates as a panellist and as a jury member in festivals around the region and in Europe. In addition, he wrote weekly in Assafir newspaper on Youth and Culture issues from 1997 till 2002.
A Syrian independent film producer, filmmaker and a co-organiser/programme director of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria. A graduate from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus with a degree in acting, Orwa Nyrabia played the main role in Yousri Nasrallah’s The Door to the Sun (Cannes Official Selection 2004) and worked as a first assistant director in several fiction films. In 2002 he co-founded Proaction Film, an independent film production and distribution company. Trained as a film producer at INA/Sorbonne in France, he is now producing fiction and documentary internationally such as the documentary film Dolls – A Woman from Damascus (IDFA, Nyon 2008). As a filmmaker, Orwa also makes documentaries and repeatedly participates as a panellist and as a jury member in festivals around the region and in Europe. In addition, he wrote weekly in Assafir newspaper on Youth and Culture issues from 1997 till 2002.
