“After school, I went to Damascus to study law and history, which I didn't really like. I didn't like history, in particular. In Syria, the regime was trying to present to us a distorted version of the past. Assad was shown as the father of history. So I decided to shift to film, which was something I had always loved as a teenager.” TryingSchoolPastFilmFatherStudyTeenagerSyriaAfter School Author:Mano Khalil
“Sitting in the darkness of the cinema, I got to see another world. This imaginary world was a refuge for many of us. Of course, the films were controlled and censored by the regime. But I still thought, around this time, that maybe making films would be good for me. I thought of expressing myself through this medium, and of doing something for the Kurds. The options were clear: either I'd work as a lawyer under the Baath regime or make movies independently.” WorldFilmDarknessBe GoodLawyerImaginaryRefugeImaginary World Author:Mano Khalil
“It's difficult to make movies. For me it was easier, as a refugee in Switzerland, to make documentary films, because I didn't need a lot of money for it. The way I tell my story or my opinion would be very similar in both fiction and documentary forms. But I found I could speak more effectively to convey this brutal reality through documentary than I could through fiction.” RealityFilmSpeakDifficultOpinionBrutalRefugee Author:Mano Khalil
“With fiction, you are creating an imaginary world. And it can be a very mechanical process. In a fictional film, you create the characters who become "real people" when facing the camera. When you stop shooting, they change their costumes and become someone else. And people tend to believe in documentary more than fiction. Even if the fiction is based on a true story, everybody will say, "Oh, they're only actors."” PeopleWorldBelieveRealCharacterFilmImaginaryTrue StoryImaginary World Author:Mano Khalil
“Most people look at a feature film and say, "It's just a movie." For me there is no border or wall between fiction and documentary filmmaking. In documentaries, you have to deal with real people and their real feelings - you are working with real laughter, happiness, sadness. To try to reflect the reality is not the same as reality itself. That's why I think that making a good documentary is much harder than making a good feature film.” PeopleThinkingTryingRealFeelingsRealityFilmSadnessWallLaughterFilmmaking Author:Mano Khalil
“Documentary has been a way for me to establish myself as a filmmaker. It's my way of proving that I have a language, that I can say something through film.” FilmLanguageProveMy WayFilmmaker Author:Mano Khalil