A YEAR IN EXILE

An immigrant’s first year in a metropolitan city outside his small country. Through a collection of moving images and sounds the film exhibits what he faces, the pictures that he sees, the crowded thoughts in his head, and the state of emotional shock that he lives throughout the year.

MALAZ USTA

Damascus born Malaz moved to Turkey in the beginning of 2016. In 2014 he started working as a graphic designer and a film editor. In 2018 he started studying Radio, TV and Cinema at the Faculty of Communication in Marmara University. He is also continuing his double major studies in Film Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Getting out of our shells (whether forced or voluntarily) we are encountered by a storm of different ideas by a huge mixture of people. This creates a stream of thoughts inside our heads. Later, by processing what we saw, heard, and lived we start to see the bigger picture. The world that we live in is a mixture of ideas and feelings, each of us has their own. The idea that anyone may own a piece of land seems funny in a place where we come and go owning nothing but our rotten body and the difference that we make in history. Each of us has equal rights in this land. However, the truth is completely different. The void that the capitalist system of production has created between the rich and the poor is extended to reach a discriminative attitude between different cultures as well and complemented by globalization which tricks us into thinking that we are all equal. The media and scapegoating have made it easier for politicians to distract attention away from their crimes and mistakes, making weak minorities responsible for bad economies and creating a virtual enemy for the common people.

• Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival / Turkey
• Bosphorus Film Festival / Turkey
• Brussels Independent Film Festival / Belgium
• Beirut Shorts International Film Festival / Lebanon
• Movies That Matter Film Festival / Netherlands
• Istanbul Film Festival / Turkey

DOKer 2021 — Short Competition