Yunan

Munir (Georges Khabbaz) is a Syrian writer in exile who travels to a remote island in Germany to commit suicide. On the island, he meets the enigmatic innkeeper Valeska (Hannah Schygulla) and her son Karl. Their kindness unsettles Munir and their warmth touches something deep in his heart, causing him to abandon his carefully laid plans. 

Yunan explores themes such as loss, identity and alienation in a poignant way, more through actions than words. With cinematography by Ronald Plante and music by Suad Bushnaq, we experience bleak weather and travel along endless island vistas of the Wallingen, an archipelago of small German Wadden Islands. We feel Munir's inner struggle and see that even on the darkest days, there is a light somewhere.

Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin, born in Kyiv, also wrote the screenplay. Yunan is the second film in his planned Homeland-trilogy about people from the Arab world in exile. The first part, The Stranger (al-Gharīb), premiered in 2021 at the 78th Venice Film Festival and was the Palestinian entry for the 94th Academy Awards that year.

Yunan is part of the “Filmmakers at Risk” selection at the Northern Film Festival, along with five other films from different programme lines and the panel on Friday afternoon: Filmmaking at Risk: The World is Watching.