If Shahrazad was alive today, what would she (or he) be doing?
THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD is a feature-length documentary film which locates political expression before, during and after the Egyptian revolution – and also within recent times in Turkey and Lebanon – within a broader historical and cultural framework: that of storytelling and music. More particularly, it looks at the legacy of the famous collection of stories known as THE 1001 (or “ARABIAN”) NIGHTS.
Using the metaphor of Shahrazad – the storytelling princess in the NIGHTS who saves lives by telling stories – and filmed before, during and after the so-called “Arab Spring”, it weaves together a web of music, politics and storytelling to explore the ways in which creativity and political articulation coincide in response to oppression. A series of unforgettable characters all draw their inspiration from the NIGHTS and, like Shahrazad, put creativity to new political use…
Characters include a charismatic conductor who uses Rimsky-Korsakov’s SCHEHERAZADE suite as a tool for political education, leading up to a final performance at Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace. A young Lebanese woman makes peace with her past by learning the art of storytelling in Egypt and becomes an internet activist in the process. An older visual artist who is obsessed with THE NIGHTS finds his “dream of Shahrazad” manifesting through the appearance of a beautiful young storyteller. An Alexandrian storyteller joins forces with a Cairo theatre troupe, meeting with the mothers of martyrs of the January 25 Revolution and turning their testimonies into new storytelling performances…
This richly kaleidoscopic film is at once observational documentary, concert film, political essay and visual translation of an ever-popular symphonic and literary classic. It is a documentary homage to THE NIGHTS, to the SCHEHERAZADE suite, and to the role of a rich historical and creative legacy within huge current political change.
The film is currently in postproduction and is due for completion in September 2013.
