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Purple Sea

Directors: Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed
Germany, 2020, 67 minutes, documentary/experimental

“I see everything,” she says, as if it was a curse. Brilliant sunshine, clear blue skies. The sea is calm, framed by a piece of railing. Buzzing voices. A peaceful moment if it weren’t for the fact that the sea is standing upright, vertical, like a waterfall. A rush of images, twirling, upside down, jolting.

People in the boat, in the water, screams, life jackets, emergency whistles. Fluorescent orange, geometrical shapes cast by the sun. There’s no horizon anymore, no sky, no up or down, only deepness and nothing to hold on to. Even Eme’s flow comes to a halt, contracting into the brutal present.

She is filming and speaking. To him, to herself, to us, perhaps. Floating legs in sweatpants, jeans, thronged together. A blouse with butterflies, it looks like their wings are flapping in the water. The snake-like belt of a coat, a crumpled-up plastic cup, a pack of cigarettes.

Fuck you all! She speaks, she rages, and she films to beat being tired, being cold, the fact that help isn’t coming. To beat dying, just for something to remain.

Trigger warning: depiction of human suffering, drowning, sound of sirens
Film screening dates: 24.11.2022 — 9.12.2022

Geopolitical context

"Purple Sea" relates the tragic events that occurred in 2015 when a boat carrying people fleeing the war in Syria sank near the island of Lesbos. It was one of many disasters of this kind: in 2014 and 2015, thousands of refugees from African and Asian countries died in the Mediterranean Sea. Two thirds of the migrants who dared to take the extremely dangerous journey across the sea to Greece and Italy in 2015 came from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Somalia. Their decision to leave cannot be considered economic migration: people were fleeing countries where their lives were in danger. EU measures were mostly aimed at denying assistance to asylum seekers. Border guards were repeatedly violent towards refugees and also violated the non-refoulement principle. This means the refugees were returned to countries where they were threatened with torture and murder, for example, Libya. The migration situation in the Mediterranean region remains horrifying. 1,369 asylum seekers died at sea in 2021.

Director
Amel Alzakout, born 1988 in Syria, is an artist and filmmaker based in Leipzig. Between 2010 and 2013 she studied journalism at Cairo University, Egypt. In 2017 she participated with other artists in the video installation TRUST US in the 3rd Herbstsalon at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin. Between 2017 and 2018 she studied art at Weißensee Art Academy in Berlin, currently she is studying media art at the Academy of visual art (HGB) in Leipzig, Germany. In 2018 she won together with her co-director Khaled Abdulwahed the Film Prize for International Cooperation Germany/Arab World by the Robert Bosch Foundation with the feature length film Purple Sea. It's her debut film as a director.

Artworks: Backyard (2018, assistant director, 26'), Stranger's Diaries (2019, together with Khaled Abdulwahed, 8-channel video installation, 35'), Purple Sea (2020, 67')
Director
Khaled Abdulwahed, born 1975 in Syria, is an artist, photographer and filmmaker based in Leipzig. Between 1996 and 2000 he studied Fine Arts and Graphic Design at Adham Ismail art school in Damascus, Syria and at Frederick University in Nicosia, Cyprus. Between 2002 and 2008 he exhibited his artworks in the Middle East and Europe. Between 2011 and 2013 he directed and produced video artworks which were screened in many art spaces, festivals, universities, and TV channels over the world. In 2015 he was invited to Berlinale Talents. In 2018 his short film Backyard celebrated its world premiere and won the CNAP (National Centre for Visual Arts) award at FID Marseille.

Artworks: Bullet (2011, 2'), Tuj (2012, 2'), Slot in Memory (2013, 2'30''), Backyard (2018, 26'), Stranger's Diaries (2019, together with Amel Alzakout, 8-channel video installation, 35'), Purple Sea (2020, co-director, 67')