IF YOU WERE ALIVE
Abdulrazzaq Al-jewari
Finland
Anwar takes us on a journey between his conflicting feelings, reality and imagination, on the night of Finnish Independence Day festival.
SYNOPSIS
One night in wintry Finland, through the eyes of an Iraqi refugee. Anwar (27) seeks peace in the night of a Finnish Independence Day festival. His mood is far from partying. Instead, Anwar cannot escape the memories of war. The Finns’ elated mood is a stark contrast to Anwar’s downbeat feeling. Still, each Finn whom he encounters, brings him closer in touch with their experience.
The people reflect his tangled thoughts of the world. These people could be real or Anwar’s imagination, but in the end, he is able to make peace with his feelings.
INTENTION
How do you achieve peace and how do you achieve peace of mind? Can it be achieved on cemeteries, where the Iraqi often go to look for it? The themes of this movie include depression, the trauma of war. Trauma is the dominant theme of the film, but despite the cultural differences, the audience can relate to the story by finding and appreciating the good and the beautiful, the precious things in life and recognizing their existence as well. There are many Anwars inthis world. My aim is to raise compassion for a person escaping his past and his thoughts.
The atmosphere in the film includes drama, passion andpsychology, but also humor. The visual world of the movie is dark and a bit off. This skewedness is apparent in the characters themselves on one hand, and on the other hand in the visual elements. In the visual narrative, I want to utilize long shots and a moving, mostly handheld camera. The cuts inside shots and also unusual transitions from one scene to another support the creation of a slightly unreal atmosphere. In the soundscape, I use a lot of subjective, symbolic elements. These include Anwar’s inner voice. The music will combine European and Iraqi music traditions.
DIRECTOR
Abdulrazzaq
Al-jewari
Driector Abdulrazzaq Al-jewari studied film in Baghdad University and had to flee the country in 2015. Al-jewari has a political asylum in Finland since November 2016. He has been awarded for his photography in Iraq, but has lost all his films in the turmoil of the Iraqi war.
PRODUCER
Venla Hellstedt
Venla Hellstedt’s filmography as a producer includes 28 documentary and fiction features, as well as TV comedy series, many of which have been awarded in festivals, such as Locarno and Berlinale. She studied film, literature and social anthropology in London and is a partner of the production company Tuffi Films.
Genre
Drama
Length
15 min
Language
Finnish, Arabic
Shooting Location
Finland
Production company
Tuffi Films (Finland)
Estimated budget
€137.000
Secured funding
Finnish Film Foundation
Development Funding - €10.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Financing