Stars in Broad Daylight (Nujum al-Nahar), by Oussama Mohammad (Syria, 1988, 115 min, Color, Beta SP PAL and DV-Cam NTSC)
 
Synopsis:
A double wedding in a small village turns to high drama when one bride runs away and the other refuses to go on with her marriage. The drama unveils the fragile balance holding together a family strained by an abusive father now replaced by the successful but corrupt eldest son, a pathologically enraged second son, and the troubles of the youngest son, rendered deaf by a violent blow his father dealt him as a child. Ultimately tragic, the film is rife with biting humor and sharp political critique as it exposes how the violence of arbitrary and absolute power in a patriarchal society seeps into the unit of a family. Stars in Broad Daylight, Ousama Mohammad's first long feature, remains banned from screening in Syria because of its subversive representation and critical voice. Selected at the «Quinzaine des Réalisateurs» at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988.
Credits:

Directed by: Oussama Mohammad
Script: Oussama Mohammad
Camera: Abdul-Qader Shirbaji
Editing: Antoinette Azriyeh
Cast: Zuheir Abdul-Karim, Maha al-Saleh, Abdullatif Abdul-Hamid, Sabah al-Salem
Production: General Organization for Cinema, Syria.
Filmmaker’s Biography:

Born in Lattakiya in 1954, Oussama Mohammad graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1979. There, he directed a short documentary, titled Khutwa Khutwa (Step by Step, 1978). He returned to Syria and directed a short documentary for the General Organization for Cinema titled Al-Yaom Koll Yaom (Today Everyday, 1980). He worked as assistant director to Mohammad Malas on Ahlam al-Madina (Dreams of the City, 1983) and directed his first fiction feature Nujum al-Nahar (Stars in Broad Daylight) in 1988. Deemed by many to be the most scathing critique of contemporary Syrian society trapped in the iron grip of the Baath regime, the film has never been allowed a public screening in Syria. Although not officially banned, the film has been shelved by diktat, and sits in storage under threat of irremediable physical deterioration. The film was selected at the Cannes Film Festival's Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and earned the filmmaker great critical praise, including the Golden Olive at the Valencia Festival in the same year.
In 1992, he co-authored the script for al-Leyl (The Night, 1992) with Mohammad Malas and co-directed with Omar Amiralay and Malas the documentaries Shadows and Light (1991) and Fateh Moudaress (1994). He was unable to make his second feature until 2002. Sunduq al-Dunya (Sacrifices, 2002) was meant as an hommage to Andreï Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, the exiled Soviet master's last film, and was selected for the Cannes Film Festival's section Un Certain Regard in 2002. Complex and visually stunning, the film has confirmed its maker as one of the Soviet film school's graduates most individual and masterful filmmakers.
Print Source:
The General Organization for Cinema, Damascus, Syria
Contact: Mr. Mohammad el-Ahmad (director) or Mr. Raafat Charkas (Festivals)
Tel: +963 11 332 0876/ 332 0892
Fax: +963 11 332 3556
Email: cinema@mail.sy