‘Ode to Joy’, a film on how to resist the daily tragedy of war
Sandra Awad, head of communications at Caritas Syria, describes the daily hardship of war in a short video. Every day, people “must fight" for water, electricity, heating. The symphony, like an inner wall, is a way to survive violence and devastation. The “greatest" joy is helping others. The West could help Syrians rediscover "our dignity".
Damascus (AsiaNews) – Sandra Awad, 38, head of communication for Caritas Syria, made Ode to Joy, a five-minute video that highlights the “hardship and insecurity" people face “everyday inside Syria”, which they ask to share in a token of solidarity.
“[A]fter six years of war, we reached the point that we are struggling every day to provide life’s simple necessities,” the Christian married mother of two told AsiaNews; things like water, electricity, heating. This led to the idea of making a short film showing the "daily life" of a Syrian citizen, a project that has now taken shape.
The idea for the video emerged for the first time three years ago, during a session with a mental care specialist, as part of a process undertaken to face the hardships, psychological ones included, caused by the conflict.
"[M]y psychoanalyst asked me a question," Sandra Awad said, namely “what is the effect of the war on your life?”, not only in terms of bereavement, destruction of houses, deprivations. “I had built a big wall inside to separate myself from the war, and protect myself from depression and sadness,” she said.
In fact, the psychoanalyst wanted to know about "the daily pressures" faced in war, like the lack of water, electricity, the emigration of friends and family, economic problems. "When she finished, I felt that something inside of me had collapsed; maybe that was wall I had built! I started crying”.
This sparked the idea to describe the daily hardships to people “in the West" who live in peace and cannot fully understand. “They might read numbers and statistics about poverty rates inside Syria. They might watch news about blood and killing, but what about this daily stress we are living under,” the “simple things, very simple things like water, gas, oil for heating and bread? [. . .] We might spend hours to arrive to our workplace because of checkpoints.”
“Young people stopped thinking about their future" and this situation " is killing us from inside [. . .] every day," said the Christian activist. This led to the project that began to take shape for the first time three years ago.
“I had the idea of writing a short film", but “when the scenario was ready in 2013, our administration refused the idea. I remember the words of my boss who said at that time: It is not realistic.” Perhaps, that was the case at the time, but for her today the situation is much more serious.
After six years of war, people have reached the point where they have to fight for simple necessities every day, which led Caritas to change its mind and back the project.
“This film shows a Caritas worker, who wakes up as usual at the sound of bombing, and starts his day facing life difficulties, without electricity, water or gas,” Ms Awad said.
“Despite the fact that the story of the short film is sad, the young man who was acting was humming the ‘Ode to Joy’ symphony all the time. Maybe this symphony is similar to the wall that I built inside me to protect myself. It is the young man’s way to stay calm and optimistic”. When he is almost hit by shelling, he gets up and goes on.
The Caritas official also wanted to “give the idea that the biggest joy in life is in helping others in need. This is what we live in Caritas every day” even if “Our work is not easy”.
The war has deeply affected Caritas Syria employees. For example, the receptionist in Kashkoul district lost her husband from a stray bullet in the early stages of the conflict. Now she “is taking care of three daughters on her own, and the burden of life is becoming harder on her every day”.
At the same time though, Caritas workers must “put away their own sorrows, and listen to people’s sad and sometimes tragic stories, with understanding and compassion, and if you ask them, from where they get the strength to continue their mission, most of them will tell you: from the joy we see in needy people’ eyes when they get our help…. This is simply the ode of joy of Caritas in Syria”.
“Six years of war have exhausted Syrian society. We feel that we are now back in the Stone Age, deprived from simple things in life.
“You in the western countries can help us get our dignity and our joy back by supporting us here, whether financially or morally and by helping us extinguish the fire of war in our country.
“Speak out loudly about the truth, about human beings who are suffering tremendously in Syria, press on your governments to stop the sanctions on our country, which are making rich people richer, and poor people even poorer.”
“Ask your leaders to stop sending weapons and allowing Jihadists to go to Syria, help us rebuild our country to be able to play again our own ‘Ode of Joy’ . . .”. (DS)
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21/07/2005
