QUEENS OF SYRIA

2014, 70 mins, Arabic with English subtitles

Film Website

QUEENS OF SYRIA tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women, the timeless Ancient Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war. What followed was an extraordinary moment of cross-cultural contact across millennia, in which women born in 20th century Syria found a blazingly vivid mirror of their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, uprooted, enslaved, and bereaved by the Trojan War.

To get a copy of your chosen film, please contact filmmaker Yasmin Fedda at . Instead of a screening fee, please give a £50 donation directly to the White Helmets. Don’t forget to check out the complementary post-screening resources to help navigate public conversations.

Awards & Nominations

Winner of the Black Pearl Award for Best Director from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, 2014 Special Mention from the UNHCR at the 3rd edition of the Human Rights Film Festival in Tunis 2014 (Human Screen Festival 2014)

Post-screening conversation questions

How does this theatre project build upon the classic Euripides play to tell a very contemporary story about refugee women displaced from Syria and living in Jordan?
What role does first person storytelling and testimony play?
How has the filmmaker observed/captured the deeply personal, often painful journeys taken by the women – both in their real lives and throughout the rehearsing of the play and workshop?
In comparison to mainstream media imagery of female refugees, our heroines exemplify resilience and bravery. How does the female-led cast offer insights into women refugees’ stories of survival and agency that are often ignored in news media channels?