Issa Touma
Aleppo, Syria
About the Artist
Issa Touma is a self-taught photographer & film director based in Aleppo, Syria. His work can be found in several international collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London & FOMU Museum in Antwerpen, Belgium. 2016 was a special year for Issa Touma, his movie 9 Days From My Window in Aleppo won many awards, including the European Film Award for Best Short Film. In the same year, the film also won the Best Short Film at the London Film Festival and the Tribute Award at the International Short Film Festival in New York. His "9 days..." film has been shown in more than sixty festivals and around fifty cultural activities around the world. His new movie Greetings from Aleppo opened the IFFR (International Film Festival of Rotterdam - Jan 2017) and won the DIG AWARD in Italy and DIRECTORSNL AWARD 2018 in the Netherlands.
Rebuilding Aleppo
“During my staying in the West, I was bothered with some limited questions from the westerners about my city Aleppo. They were getting surprised when I used to tell them that large part from the city is fine and not abandoned, and most of its population is still there. Westerners tend to believe their political magazines and war activists. I did not care because eventually they would not live in my city, nor help with its reconstruction. They are holding tight to the political dictatorship and democrat war stories, but would not help the simple citizen who did not care for all of that. In the end, Aleppo's reconstruction is going to be done by the hands of its citizens in a fast way, because they are in need for their shops and apartments.” - Issa Touma
