Celebrating Syria 2018: a Festival of Arts and Culture, was launched on Saturday 6th October by a screening at the University of Manchester of "HOME" - a stirring and engaging film by Rafat Al Zakout. Amidst the Syrian turmoil, his passion for the arts leads film maker Rafat Al Zakout to encounter, on a trip to North Syria, a group of hopeful young friends: including ballet dancer Ahmed. Despite the difficult circumstances and the conservative society, the young men use their fragile freedom to realise their dream and make a creative space they call Home. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Rafat Al Zakout via Skype.
Rafat Alzakout
Rafat graduated in 2003 at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus and started his career as a theatre actor & director. In 2011 & with the outburst of the uprising in Syria, Rafat started to search for ways to interlace theatre with film. His 1st experience in short filmmaking was by directing around 30 theatre films, which lampooned the unfolding events in Syria.