DOUNIA AND THE PRINCESS OF ALEPPO
Genre
Animation
Running time
72 minutes
Year
2022
Language
French
Subtitle
English
Country
Canada
Director
Marya Zarif, André Kadi
Bio
Producer
Judith Beauregard
Cast
Rahaf Ataya, Elsa Mardorissian, Manuel Tadros, Raïa Haidar, Marya Zarif, Naïm Jeanbart, Mustapha Aramis, Houssam Ataya, Irland Côté
Scriptwriter
Marya Zarif
Six-year-old Dounia (brightly voiced by Rachaf Ataya) is forced to leave her home in Aleppo after her father is taken away in the middle of the night. Together with her kindly, cultured grandparents and the guiding spirit of the Princess of Aleppo - a character conjured by her father in his stories about her mother, Leyla, who died when Dounia was too young to remember her – she sets off into exile. Based on a graphic novel by Marya Zarif, who co-directs here, this enchanting animation embeds the hard facts of the refugee experience inside a feast of fantasy, drawn from Syrian tradition and embellished with oud and flute music. Zarif’s simple but decorative drawings that are immediately accessible to children will also delight many adults. Most of all, no matter how bleak the family’s circumstances, their story is infused with Dounia’s own infectious optimism.
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