Mohammad Malas
| Mohammad Malas محمد ملص |
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| Born | 1945 (age 71–72) Quneitra, Syria |
| Years active | 1970– |
| Awards |
Carthage Film Festival – Tanit d'Or 1984 Ahlam al-Madina Berlin International Film Festival – Interfilm Award – Honorable Mention 1985 Ahlam al-Madina Carthage Film Festival – Tanit d'Or 1992 al-Lail Fribourg International Film Festival – Distribution Help Award 1993 al-Lail Marrakech International Film Festival – Special Jury Award 2005 Bab al-Makam |
Mohammad Malas (Arabic: محمد ملص) (born 1945) is a prominent Syrian filmmaker. Malas directed several documentary and feature films that garnered international recognition. He is among the first auteur filmmakers in Syrian cinema.
Malas worked as a school teacher between 1965 and 1968 before moving to Moscow to study filmmaking at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). During his time at VGIK Malas directed several short films. After his return to Syria he started working at the Syrian Television. There he produced several short films including Quneitra 74, in 1974 and al-Zhakira ("The Memory") in 1977. Along with Omar Amiralay he co-founded the Damascus Cinema Club.
Between 1980–81 Malas shot a documentary film, al-Manam ("The Dream"), about the Palestinians living in the refugee camps in Lebanon during the civil war. The film was composed of interviews with the refugees in which he asked them about their dreams. Filming took place between the Sabra, Shatila, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ain al-Hilweh and Rashidieh refugee camps. During filming Malas lived in the camps and conducted interviews with more than 400 people. However, the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982, which claimed the lives of several people he interviewed, shocked Malas and he stopped working on the project. He finally returned to it after five years, and the film was released in 1987. Al-Manam won first prize at the 1987 Cannes International Audio Visual Festival (FIPA) but was not widely distributed.
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