“Tala ‘Vision” is the first Jordanian or Arab film to win the gold medal for Best Narrative Film (International) at the 48th Student Academy Awards in California, also called the “Student Oscars”. This victory allows directors to compete for their work in the short films category at the 2022 Oscars.
The Jordanian-German short is about an 8-year-old girl, Tala, unable to leave her house in Syria because members of the Islamic State control the streets outside. The child’s only window on the outside world is the small family television. But soon the Islamic State bans even that.
In an interview with the Jordan Times the film’s writer/director Murad Abu Eisheh said: “In 2014 I came across a newspaper article about Isis banning televisions. […] I remember reading the article and realising a whole generation of children were growing up without seeing or understanding the outside world.”
Filmed at a child’s eye-level, the 28-minute drama plunges viewers into daily life during a war as seen through the eyes of the child. Tala is played by Aisha Balassem, 10, herself a Syrian refugee who had arrived in Jordan a few years earlier. Aisha’s life has been tragically close to her character’s: a father arrested during the war, a mother missing, leaving her with no alternative but to look after her siblings on her own.
Jude Kawwa, the film’s Jordanian co-producer, explains: “When the media covers the war they usually talk about loss and destruction, we never really talk about the long term effects on children and how that affects an entire generation.”
Murad Abu Eisheh
Born in Jordan in 1992, director Murad Abu Eisheh told Jordan News, “I want to make films which tell stories about here. We have to produce a Middle East cinema – working closely with local people, for international audiences, and exposing the criticisms people face here.” “Tala’ Vision” is his third short film and has been entered in the short film category of the 2022 Oscars.
The artist is also the coordinator of “Follow The Nile”, a pan-African audiovisual development program, which supports young filmmakers from the countries of the Nile basin.
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Sources: jordantimes.com, jordannews.jo, albawaba.com, mad-distribution.film
