Rawand Al Hares’ Short Film Receives International Recognition

Rawand Al Hares an LAU MEPI TL Program Alumna in TV and Film has been in the show since her graduation in December 2018. She previously participated in the European Youth Voting Movement in May 2019 where she covered a variety of tasks including videography. After this successful initiative, Al Hares felt the need of spreading her wings further and focusing on her utmost passion: Film making.

Al Hares participated in the 12th edition of PROJECTOR / Video Art Festival  that took place from September 11 to 22, 2019 in Madrid under « Travelling Narratives », a regional art and research project that aims to promote cooperation between cultural operators and artists in Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, and to establish long-term cooperation and horizontally-based partnerships.

Through her inspirational short film « Dehia », Al Hares was elected along with two other independent filmmakers and got the privilege to have her masterpiece screened in the festival.

“Dehia” takes the viewer on a journey of the golden days of the Amazigh, being the native inhabitants of Libya. As they have been oppressed by the succession of colonial forces, there were many attempts to bury their history and erase their identity. The video then shifts to question the present and the unknown future of the Amazigh generations, after the revolutions that took place in 2011.

The film served the purpose of shedding light on the minorities whose voices are not loud enough to be heard. Al Hares work raised questions in relation to cultural identity, mental issues, and the socio-political issues in the Arab region, which directed the jury’s attention to her capabilities in portraying the real condition of an oppressed society in a limited time frame.

Being a Libyan citizen, Al Hares works tirelessly to elucidate Libya’s fractured society, often with chaotic conditions in everyday’s life with the hope that her projects will help galvanize the masses to demand change.