"I've been interested in the Domari for some time," explains Yahya Al-Abdullah (MPA '17), "ever since I lived among the community in Aleppo for four years." Al-Abdullah grew up in Aleppo and knows the city well. "I was struck by how these people lived. They were stateless, so they had no access to basic rights or community services," he remembers.
Al-Abdullah met Domari while he was living in Istanbul as well. He noticed that many of the Domari street beggars were holding similar signs, with similar messages printed in the same font. "You could see that they were organized, that there was a pattern," he says. He did some research and found that there was not a lot of information about the Domari, who are known also as the "Kurbat" (an offensive term according to Al-Abdullah) in Syria, and the "Gypsies of the Middle East." The largest populations of Domari, who do not share a language or a religion, live in Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Iran. "I wanted to tell their story," says Al-Abdullah, "and decided that film was the best way to do this."
Max Harwood had the same idea. "We had met years ago in Aleppo when he was traveling in Syria, and then much later in Istanbul at a mutual friend's wedding," says Al-Abdullah. They decided to join up and work on a film about the Domari together. "Max is an ethnographic filmmaker, and so had technical skills that I don't have. I knew about the struggle of the Doma, knew the people, and the community. We were a good match," says Al-Abdullah. The result of this collaboration was "We Don't Stay in Camps," a 23-minute documentary about the lives of some of the many Domari men, women, and children who are living in the streets of Istanbul. It has been screened in Istanbul and Washington, DC, Budapest and Montreal.
Al-Abdullah and Harwood have joined forces again to produce a second film called "Water." They went back to an area that Al-Abdullah knew, and where he was a familiar presence. "In this second film, I wanted to focus on the children and let them tell their own stories, and to show what they have lost." The film was shown at CEU on May 24 and will be screened at the INTEGRIM-SCRIBANI Conference/Film Festival in Bilbao this summer.
Al-Abdullah is already thinking about his next film. "I think film is a strong instrument, and a creative way to educate and inform people," he says. "There are still lots of stories to tell."