‘Ayouni’, a film about the human cost of the disappeared in Syria during the Assad regime, by Director Yasmin Fedda, for which I did the sound design and wrote the score, is coming to London, with a screening at the London Palestine Film Festival on Saturday 22 November (tickets here). I’d love to see you there - it’s a rare chance to see the film in London.
Read MoreLiving Symphonies in 'Lost for Words' at Sheffield Doc Fest
Sound design for 'A Thousand Fires' by Saeed Taji Farouky
I’ve recently finished the sound design for a new film, A Thousand Fires by director Saeed Taji Farouky. It is a visceral, temporal portrayal of life in the Magway region of Myanmar.
Read More'Island' now available online
Island is now available to download via iTunes, Vimeo, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video
Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. We observe bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology. Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, Island is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this an enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.
★★★★★ – The Sunday Times
★★★★ – The Guardian
“Poetic; disarmingly intimate” – Sight & Sound
“Probes uncharted territory with great intelligence and sensitivity” – Little White Lies
'Ayouni' released online
Ayouni is now available to watch worldwide at www.ayounifilm.com
It was a great privilege to compose the score and sound design for the film, directed by Yasmin Fedda..
At a time when the dictatorship in Syria is still in power, and its position is being normalised, it feels crucial to respond to the crimes that have been committed in its name, and in the wake of the destruction it has created across the country. Since 2011, government forces, and other armed groups, have forcibly disappeared at least 100,000 people – making them absent, silenced, invisible.
Families and friends of the disappeared still face the difficult tasks of finding answers. In this context, it is essential to build and preserve a portfolio of war crimes that can be used for accountability and for eventual justice. Ayouni is a small contribution to this effort, bringing intimate stories and realities in focus.