Noura and Machi search for answers about their loved ones – Bassel Safadi and Paolo Dall'Oglio, who are among the over 100,000 forcibly disappeared in Syria. Faced with the limbo of an overwhelming absence of information, hope is the only thing they have to hold on to. 'Ayouni' is a deeply resonant Arabic term of endearment – meaning 'my eyes' and understood as 'my love'. Filmed over 6 years and across multiple countries in search of answers, Ayouni is an attempt to give numbers faces, to give silence a voice, and to make the invisible undeniably visible.
co-produced with Banyak Films
Supported by Doha Film Institute, IMS, SANAD, Cap Kuwait, Amnesty International, BFI Vision Award and Beirut DC Impact Lab 2019. Working with #FREEBASSEL campaign and Families For Freedom, co-founded by Noura Ghazi.
Awards
Nominated F:ACT Competition at CPH:DOX 2020
Released online worldwide in July 2020 in 8 languages with The Syria Campaign and Amnesty international UK
Reviews
"A raging lament for Syria's disappeared" - The Guardian
AYOUNI - 2 - Familes for Freedom Bus
AYOUNI - 3 - Where is Bassel
AYOUNI - 4 - Father Paolo
AYOUNI - 5 - Machi
AYOUNI - 6 - Machi on bus
AYOUNI - 7 - Bassel and Noura engagment
AYOUNI - 8 - Noura
AYOUNI - 9 - Families for Freedom Bus