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

[Markus Nornes]

Hi William. Najib remembers you. I’ll send his address directly.

Markus

---

*Markus Nornes*
*Professor of Asian Cinema*

Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages and
Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design




*Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
<http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/>*
*Department of Film, Television and Media*
*6348 North Quad*
*105 S. State Street**Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*




On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 11:46 PM William M. Drew via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

>
> 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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> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
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