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The young pediatrician Dr. Amani Ballour is the focus of the critically acclaimed and Academy Award nominated documentary The Cave. On the 13th of March she visits Amsterdam to talk about her work at the underground hospital she ran in Syria and to share her views on the dissemination of millions of Syrian refugees.
During this evening, we will discuss in two panels both the humanitarian and the (geo)political consequences of the chaos the war-ravaged Syria caused over the past years. With Dr. Amani Ballour, Orwa Nyrabia (artistic director IDFA), Karline Kleijer (Doctors without Borders), Chams Eddine Zaougu (Journalist and arabist), Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh (SAMS Foundation) and Emiel de Bont (Special envoy in Syria) we will try to map solutions for the millions of Syrian refugees and analyse the sustainability of Assads regime and claim to power. What can the international community learn from Dr. Ballour’s journey?
This programme is a co-production with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Haven’t seen The Cave yet? We are organising an extra screening of The Cave at 4:15 PM. Click here for more information.
About Speakers
The young pediatrician Dr. Amani Ballour is the focus of the critically acclaimed and Academy Award nominated documentary The Cave. Filmed in 2016, the documentary shows how Dr. Amani heads a team of doctors in an improvised underground hospital. Against her own will, Dr. Amani Ballour eventually had to evacuate Ghouta and leave her hospital behind. She now lives in Turkey, where she is not allowed to practice her profession. She now strives to change the way women are perceived and treated in Muslim countries.
Orwa Nyrabia is an independent Syrian documentary film festival director, producer, filmmaker, trainer, human rights defender and co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria. He currently is the artistic director of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
Karline Kleijer is an emergency aid coordinator at Doctors without Borders. As head of the emergency response team, Karline Kleijer is responsible for directing the most sensitive missions of Médecins Sans Frontières, in places where the need is greatest.
Chams Eddine Zaougui is an arabist and journalist originally from Tunis. He has written for the Flemish newspaper De Standaard, the New York Times and The WorldPost. He studied Middle Eastern Studies and Philosophy in Ghent and Cairo. In 2016 he published a book called Dictators. An Arab history in which he claims that this representation of the Arab Spring has been misleading. Arab dictators try to survive at all costs. With terrible consequences.
Dr. Mufaddal Hamadeh is an Oncologist-Hematologist living in America who has been on several medical missions to Syria and Lebanon with the SAMS Foundation. The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) Foundation is a global medical relief organization that works on the front lines of crisis relief to save lives.
Emiel de Bont studied history in London and Leiden. He has been working at various foreign embassies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and currently is special envoy in Syria.
Speakers
