
A Portrait of Michel
Digital, black and white, sound, 42.59 min
“A Portrait of Michel,” is an investigative portrait of my Uncle Michel and his mysterious abduction by the Hafez al-Assad regime in Damascus in 1978, after studying medicine in Toulouse.
Rental format: Digital file $50
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About
“A Portrait of Michel,” is an investigative portrait of my Uncle Michel and his mysterious abduction by the Hafez al-Assad regime in Damascus in 1978, after studying medicine in Toulouse. Michel was never seen or heard from since.
I was given a pouch that belonged to Michel filled with random objects and papers. This film presents these "Objects of Evidence," combined with family interviews, letters, and images from Toulouse, where the viewer can decode what possibly happened through this evidence.
This portrait is interrupted by 8mm clips of my family gathering merrily in Northern Syria and Lebanon in 1946. Joyous times before all the tragedies.