Experiencing Interruptions?

A Homeland Bird

The war in Yemen began in 2015 and has not since ended.
As Yemenis at home swallow the scourge of war, Yemenis abroad receive a lot of sad news and only a few shy joys.
In front of all these frustrations they can only continue down the road of their alienation; alienation from family and alienation of the homeland. They are alone, often cautiously optimistic, sometimes breaking, frustrating, but never declaring their surrender, determined that their absence from their homeland will not last.
They heal despite the many times they have been broken. They stand up after repeatedly stumbling.
An expatriate in the prime of his youth, another full of pride standing tall like the great forts and castles of her country, who do not accept humiliation.
The two swear to God, and promise each other that they will not be let down or let one another down as they exchange their warm feelings and memories of home.
They drown in themselves while in search of themselves, forgetting who they are! However, they soon recall a long past to which they belonged.
They are the migratory birds of the homeland and the symbol of its glory and power.
Today, their homeland is nothing but a land of oppression and deprivation, a land stained with the blood of its sons, fighting each other in an absurd war. The same land where the blood of the northern and southern Yemeni was mixed to liberate the land from the power of the occupier and the oppressor.
Both migrants remember their grief, the length of their travels and their weaknesses, but at the same time they return to the creator from whom they draw strength, and to those whom they identified as Yemenis in a foreign land to embrace them.
Their meetings with other Yemenis abroad remind them of their parents, and their visits to family and loved ones back home, easing them the bitterness of hardships, fatigue and loneliness for some time. Their conversations lift their spirits making them more persistent and ready to face any challenge, to achieve their best selves and prepare to return at any moment to achieve the dream of the homeland; to rise again. Until that time the Yemeni immigrant, who lacks a homeland, decided to become his / her homeland abroad.

بدأت الحرب على اليمن تدور رحاها في العام 2015م وما انتهت منذ ذلك الحين.
في الوقت الذي يتجرع فيه اليمنيون في الداخل ويلات الحرب، تَرِدُ اليمنيين في المهجر الكثير من الأخبار الحزينة، والقليل من الأفراح الخجولة.
ولا يسعهم أمام كل تلك المحبطات سوى أن يمضوا في طريق غربتهم، غربة البعد عن الأهل وغربة فقد الوطن. يمضون وحيدين ، يشوبهم التفاؤل الحذر في كثيرٍ من الأحيان، ينكسرون تارةً، ويحبطون أخرى لكنهم لا يعلنون استسلامهم، عاقدين العزم على أن غيابهم لن يطول.
يتحدون رغم انكسارهم، ناهضون بعد تكرار تعثراتهم.
مغتربٌ في ريعان شبابه وعنفوانه، ومغتربةٌ شامخةٌ وعظيمةٌ كحصون وقلاع بلدها لا تقبل الذل.
يقسم الاثنين بالله وبحبهما وبكلاهما أنهما لن يُخذلا، ويتبادل كل منهما الحنين والشوق مع وطنه.
يغرقان لبعض الوقت في ذواتهما بحثاً عنها ، ناسيين من يكونان! إلا أنهما سرعان مايستذكران ماضٍ تليد ينتميان إليه.
هما طيور الوطن المهاجرة ورمز مجده وقوته.
لم يعد وطنهم اليوم سوى أرضاً للقهر والحرمان، أرضٌ ملطخةٌ بدماء أبناءه، يقاتلان بعضهم البعض في حربٍ عبثية.
ذات الأرض التي اختلطت فيها دماء اليمنيين شماليين وجنوبيين لتحرير الأرض من سلطة المحتل والظالم.
يتذكر كلا المهاجرين احزانهما وطول اسفارهما وضعفهما ، إلا أنهم يعودان في ذات لحظة الضعف إلى الخالق الذي يستمدان منه القوة، وإلى من تعرفوا عليهم من يمنيين في أرض غربتهم ليمنحانهما الاحتواء.
تُذكرهم لقاءاتهما باليمنيين في المهجر بالأباء والأمهات وزيارتهم للأهل والأحبة في الوطن، ماينسيهم مرارات العناء والتعب والوحِدة لبعض الوقت، ويمنحهم تجاذب أطراف الحديث معهم المزيد من الإصرار والتحدي، لتحقيق ذواتهم والاستعداد للعودة في أي لحظة لتحقيق حلم الوطن بالنهوض به من جديد، وحتى يحين ذلك الموعد ، قرر اليمني المهاجر الذي يفتقد لوطن أن يصبح هو الوطن في تلك الغربة.

  • Hashim H. Hashim
    Director
  • Adel Alqubi
    Writer
  • dot notion for media production
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Feature, Music Video
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 21 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Yemen
  • Country of Filming:
    Egypt
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 35mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Hashim H. Hashim

Hashim Hashim is an award-winning Yemeni filmmaker who’s produced & directed internationally acclaimed films. His films include ‘Girl of Scale’ (Nominated and screened in the Salento Finibus Terrae, International Short Film Festival), ‘Blind Eyes’ (Winner of UNDP Human Rights Film Competition 2014, Nominee for Best Show in Depth of Field Film Festival 2015) and ‘I Want My World as I See’ (first global winner in the 60 Seconds Film Festival). He has also been trained by distinguished international filmmakers such as Werner Herzog and Hanz Zimmer, both Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival award recipients. Among the courses he completed thus far include ‘Digital Storytelling’ (University of Birmingham) and ‘The Language of Hollywood: Storytelling, Sound and Color’ (Wesleyan University – USA).

Hashim was born in Sana’a, Yemen. Even as a child, Hashim was drawn to the arts. Casting his friends and cousins, Hashim directed & acted in plays for adults all through his schooling. Winning drawing competitions at a young age then cemented his belief that his future lay in creative and design projects. Upon completing high school, Hashim enrolled in a degree in Interior Architecture with the MARA University of Technology of Malaysian campus in Sana’a, Yemen. Hashim performed exceptionally well in the program and won Dean’s list award multiple times. Hashim also graduated being conferred the Vice-Chancellor’s award.

Hashim’s foray into filmmaking started in 2009 when he had the opportunity to participate in the first film completion in Yemen organized by the British Council. Despite his limited skills in filmmaking, Hashim won the competition with a short film entry called ‘I Wonder Why’, and was granted the opportunity to study filmmaking & directing by prestigious filmmakers from Britain.

Hashim collaborated with his team called HR Filmmakers, which was created after their participation in the British Council film competition, with the aim to spread a positive image of Yemen globally through innovative media engagement. Over time, with the number of increasing projects, it was then that dotnotion was officially conceived.

Even though his original course of studies was in Interior Architecture, his training in Audio Productions as a music composer and his skills which were honed as an interior designer augured well as these experiences eventually made him focus on minute details as a filmmaker, such as framing, and to pay more attention technically.

As a further testament to Hashim’s talent and skills, dotnotion’s films have been receiving yearly accolades by being screened, nominated and/or awarded prizes in prestigious international film festivals.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Three and a half years was more than enough to teach me the meaning of alienation to the bone, that was at the beginning of the war in Yemen.
What does a nation mean, what does belonging mean..., I felt all of this when the waves of alienation were throwing me around outside my country’s geographical boarders.
It was not until that time that I was able to pick myself up and make a home with my small family. I discovered that I am a mirror of my homeland and that I am the one who chooses how to represent my country, whether positively or negatively. In alienation, everything is different, there are multiple colors, dispersed thoughts that express people of different nationalities. It is as if everything is like an artistic painting, the interpretations of their meanings differ, but all their differences are due to the different countries and humans, with all their mistakes, difficulties in their lives and also their successes.
I was my homeland while living abroad. I stumbled, fell, yet succeeded. Every moment, I was thinking about my homeland, as if it were me. I suffer if one day someone talks badly about home, and I rejoice if the conversation is positive and full of pride.
This film was created by expatriates from the writing stage all the way through directing and finally to production, and the film saw the beginnings of light inside and out of the borders of the homeland. when I returned to my homeland, I completed the march of the film, which represents one of its manifestations. I was surprised by some for losing the meaning of a homeland, and they did not find any meaning even in themselves!
This film formed its features from the pain of suffering experienced by the Yemeni people who feel patriotism wherever they are, whether they were expatriates feeling the effects of alienation, or citizens possessed by alienation while living in their homeland. They are the embodiment of their homeland with all the differences of its people, so neither race, color nor the place in which they live matters.
I hope I was able to deliver the message back home carrying optimism, hope, and all the best so that people could be their homelands!