The Sleeping Sun Station محطة الشمس النائمة by Anhar Salem

The Sleeping Sun Station محطة الشمس النائمة

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Two memories of Anhar, narrated by her two nieces, revolve around their questioning of whether the images they recall are real or fake, as they ask their mother to make sense of them. Being raised by her older sister, Amani Salem, and growing up in the same place with her nieces, the film reflects how everything is interconnected, revolving around shared experiences and memories. Here, Anhar also recalls a song her father used to sing, a yodeling Indonesian song: Si Gembala Sapi by Norma Sanger. Anhar and her sister never heard the song, and in the film, we see them listening to it together for the first time in the car on their way to her father's favorite annual ritual since he was a photographer himself: taking a family photo at the studio, as a way to grieve his death in a car accident in 2016 and to mark women being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia in 2017. The film was shot in 2019 and features her niece Doody (Badriah Ahmed) and Aziza Ali, both of whom passed away. Part of the neighborhood where Anhar was shooting, in Al Nuzlah Al Yamaniyyah, including the studio itself, was also demolished in 2022.

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documentary film
experimental film
video art