[KineJapan] seeking information on a Syrian silent film from a former KineJapan member

[reeldrew at aol.com]

 I would appreciate possible assistance from anyone at KineJapan in providing me with some possibly urgent information. Over 20 years ago I corresponded with Najib El-Khash, a prominent Syrian journalist long resident in Tokyo who is still active but may no longer be a member of this group. I got in touch with him when he was an active participant on KineJapan and I was seeking information on early cinema production in the Middle East. In early March of 2003, he sent me a VHS copy of Taht sama'a Dimashq (Under Damascus Skies), an outstanding Syrian silent feature film directed in 1932 by Ismail Anzour. It is one of the few surviving Arab silent features. For example, all of the first Egyptian features from 1927-29 seem to be lost. The copy he sent me was a dupe of a video reproduction of the original that he had received from the National Film Organization of Syria. This was toward the end of the VHS era and before DVD became the norm. The copy Najib sent me was incomplete, lacking the film's ending due to the carelessness of the people at NFO who let the tape run out and then rewind as they were copying it. Even so, it was apparent to me that Anzour's film was a work of high quality. Najib said he would try to get a better copy for me, but preoccupied as I was with other projects, I never got around to contacting him about it again. Flash forward to December 14, 2024. As everyone knows, after years of a brutal war pursued by the US and a deceptive lull for the last four years or so, Syria including its capital, Damascus, has fallen to insurgents who, despite considerable whitewashing by the US media and government, are the same kind of reactionary fundamentalist fanatics who have wreaked havoc in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if the new rulers in Damascus were sensitive to cultural history, there would still be the problems posed by the breakdown of society and the constant aerial attacks from the Israelis. For this reason, I am concerned about whether Taht sama'a Dimashq will survive this widespread carnage.  Due to my concerns, I have written both FIAF and the Arab Film and Media Institute in San Francisco about Anzour's film but have received no reply. I know that Taht sama'a Dimashq has been shown in other countries including France's Festival de 3 Continents. Perhaps an archive in the West or elsewhere in the Middle East has obtained a copy. Perhaps Anzour's family have safeguarded a print. One would hope at least that there is a DVD or better quality VHS of the film available somewhere outside Syria. I would therefore very much appreciate it if anyone here who has been in contact with Najib El-Khash and has his current e-mail address could put me in touch with him. He may have some information about this film and how to best preserve it amidst the present tumultuous situation in Syria. Also, if anyone here has information of their own about the current status of Taht sama'a Dimashq, I would very much appreciate it. William M. Drew
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