It Will Rain

A short film by graduating director Amir Zaza, and alumni Aziza van den Bert, Ingmar Conjarts, Loes Lucker (producers) and Zeynep Dulger (screenplay), (Netherlands Film Academy).

Will I stay in order to fight against the injustice in Syria that cost my brother his life? Or will I decide to flee to a safer world? That is the question that Nawras asks himself after he is released in a miraculous way from the hellish Syrian prison where his brother was killed. 

‘In telling the story of Nawras, we are telling a story about a universal theme regarding oppression and injustice in a Syrian arena’, the creators explain. ‘An important objective of this film is to connect people from Western society with people who have fled from warzones. With this film, we provide insight into why they were forced to flee and how complicated it is to make such a decision. We have created something which is becoming more and more topical every day. As a result of the current situation in Ukraine, the dilemma of Nawras is a dilemma that countless citizens close by to us are facing It is necessary to tell the story of Nawras, as in this way we give the people from Amir’s home country a face. The millions of victims are more than just numbers. By making this film, Amir is an example for other refugee filmmakers. What we want to achieve with this is for a wide range of talented people in the Netherlands to feel invited to learn the film profession, as well as feeling the need to tell their own story. 

This film was not only shot within the Netherlands. Diverse stories deserve to be taken seriously, and shooting a film in the Netherlands that doesn’t take place here wouldn’t make sense. That is why the creators did everything they could to make it possible for this film to be partially shot in Spain. The landscape there is extremely similar to the Syrian landscape. The experience of making a film as part of a collaborative project with a film school abroad (in this case the Spanish film school EISO in Almeria) was extremely useful for the development of everyone who took part in the project and could serve as an example for future filmmakers with a limited budget. 

Mart Dominicus, Supervising lecturer in Directing fiction  
In terms of the relevance of IT WILL RAIN, we can keep it brief: it jumps off the screen as far as I’m concerned. The impossible dilemma of whether to fight or flee when your country is at war, the poignant mix of anger and powerlessness, the convincing acting of the (amateur!) actors, the impressive cinematography (of almost Rembrandt -like allure at times) and the utterly believable Production Design of the arena (prison, Damascus, etc; no coincidence that it recently received an award at the Dutch Film Festival) make IT WILL RAIN a film that cannot be ignored.  

Petra Goedings, film producer Phanta Vision 
As a producer with 32 years’ experience, I am deeply impressed by the way in which the entire project was handled, how it played politics, the excellent production values with very little money and how the entire team continuously focused on the quality of the content right up until the last day of post-production. It ended up being an extremely moving film, precisely because they opted for a combination of rich lighting and camerawork, on the one hand, while on the other hand not shying away from the harsh reality. In this way, the audience is able to get close to and feel the characters. It is not an introspective film, but a film that seeks connection with outside world on various levels. All this without sensationalism or striving for effect. 
The team also entered into a collaboration with the Spanish film academy in Andalusia and is therefore a genuine international production. In addition to the Arabic setting of the story, the film was created with a very diverse cast/crew. The rich diversity radiates from the screen. 
In short: a unique graduation project, which will be talked about for a long time to come, both within and outside the Netherlands.