Young audience

Dounia & the Princess of Aleppo

André Kadi | Marya Zarif
5-12 School Animation 2022 72 min Canada, France

Synopsis

The heartbreaking journey of a little Syrian girl driven out of her country by war.

Dounia, a cheerful little Syrian girl full of dreams, loses her mother prematurely. Then the regime arrests her father. With her grandparents, she has to leave her beloved country to find a new home. Despite the obstacles that stand in her way, she knows that she can count on the few magic nigella seeds she holds in her hand and on the help of the princess of Aleppo…Marya Zarif and André Kadi use their determined and dreamy little girl to tell the traumatic journey of so many Syrian refugees from a child’s point of view, while at the same time summoning all the magic and beauty of the legends of the Arabic world. The film is full of hope and bravery.

Cast/Avec

  • Rahaf Ataya
  • Elsa Mardirossian
  • Manuel Tadros
  • Raïa Haidar
  • Marya Zarif
  • Naïm Jeanbart
  • Mustapha Aramis

Screenplay

  • Marya Zarif

Cinematographer

  • Marie-Michelle Laflamme

Sound

  • Pierre Yves Drapeau

Music

  • Pierre Yves Drapeau

Production

  • Judith Beauregard

André Kadi

André Kadi
André Kadi

After arriving in Canada in 2007 as a comic book writer and musician, André joined the entertainment studio Frima. Director of the art department, and founder of a branch of the studio in Bordeaux, he opened a 2D animation studio there in 2012 and directed the series “MaXi” (2017) and “L’Agent Jean!” (2018) before co-founding Du Coup Animation in 2018 and Du Coup Production. In 2020, he co-directs the series Dounia with Marya Zarif for Tobo. Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo (2022) was his first feature film.

More about the director

Filmography

  • Dounia et la princesse d’Alep 2022
  • Monster Lab (série TV) 2021
  • MeatCanyon (série TV) 2020
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Marya Zarif

Marya Zarif
Marya Zarif

Born in Syria, Marya grew up in Aleppo. She studied communication and playwriting and graduated from INSIS (Institut national de l’image et du son du Québec). In 2013, she co-created “The House of Syria”, a tribute to Syrian culture, and in 2015 co-founded “I want to play”, a foundation that aims to transform the lives of Syrian refugee children through play. In 2020, she created, scripted and co-directed her first youth animation web series, “Dounia”.

More about the director

Filmography

  • Dounia et la princesse d’Alep 2022
  • Dounia (série TV) 2020
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