Doha Film Institute
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Eight women from across Sudan share their astonishing encounters with the inhabitants of the households they took refuge in during Sudan’s revolution in 2019.
While the Sudanese revolution’s defeats and victories were mainly captured and seen from outside in the streets, this series is entirely focused on the unseen and untold stories which took place behind closed doors. It restructures precarious and emotional encounters between women protesters and the inhabitants of the homes that received them as they fled from the security and militia men chasing them in the streets. Women of different political interests, cultural and economic backgrounds narrate their own stories. In each episode, one woman shares her personal experience that either examined her confidence and own self-awareness or shifted her perspective about the revolution and the people she is fighting for.

A key setup of ‘The House That My Mother Built’ is the visual tension between the protestors’ inner quests and fears and the hypothetically safe yet confined interior space of their host. The houses are consistently interrupted by the threat of attack and danger from outside these closed doors. Through the juxtaposition of our character’s personalities, motivations, fears and courage, we expose the vulnerability behind their powerful acts of resistance. The series portrays the conflict between the idealistic dreams and slogans of the revolution and the complex reality in which the characters live, inviting audiences to view ‘change’ and ‘resistance’ as a daily process.

Credits

Director
Alyaa Musa
Screenwriter
Alyaa Musa
Producer
Mia Bittar, Nada Hafiz
Production Designer
Black Balance Artistic Production

About the Director

Alyaa Musa
Alyaa Musa is an independent producer, writer, director and visual artist. Transforming from a development professional to a storyteller, Alyaa is searching for controversy, hope and beauty behind closed doors. She has creative credits as a producer, director, cinematographer, editor and visual artist in approximately ten shorts that were screened in regional and international film festivals. Alya
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