David Ruf – Land of Light

March 13, 2017

David Ruf - Land of Light fredfilmradio

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PODCAST | Samantha Sartori interviews David Ruf, director of the film Land of Light.

We met David Rug in New York and we talked about Land of Light his documentary based on theater workshops with Syrian refugee children living in the Turkish-Syrian border town Reyhanli. The film tells the story of five children that flee, when their village is destroyed. Acted completely by Syrian children who themselves fled to Turkey, this film is a parable on how war affects children, crossing the borders between documentary and fiction. It was premiered and won two awards at the FILEMON International Childrens Film Festival in Brussels, Belgium (Best Feature Film by Childrens Jury and Best Feature Film by Teenager Jury) Its German premiere was at Max Ophüls Festival (out of competition) The next screening is on the 2nd of March on the Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal (Official Selection – Out of Competition) After that next festival is the Goldener Spatz Festival in Erfurt – 11th to 17th of June 2017

Land of Light: Raisa’s every day life is war. But somewhere, the eleven years old girl believes, there is the Land of Light – a place where all wishes and dreams are fullfilled. When Raisa’s father disappears and her grandmother is killed, she leaves her village together with her small brother and sets forth to find this place. Every child that she meets, Raisa takes on the journey and tells him about the Land of Light, where all people are equal, no matter what group or religion they belong to. In this peaceful land children can play without worries and their parents take care for them. While the other children start to believe Raisa’s prophecy and follow her on the dangerous journey, the colorful group grows tightly together. But soon the war overhauls them. Distrusts divides the group and feeds the fear, that the Land of Light might not exist and that their journey could fail…

Official website here.

Written by: fredfilmradio

David Ruf Land of Light