 Hello everybody and welcome to today's talk of the day. They call me an artist. We're a bit late because we have a little change. As you can see, I'm not Liba Yazzi, but we have her here behind me because she's sick. She can't attend. But we've tried to establish a Skype connection so she can speak to you. And then afterwards, we'll have Ramzi Magdizi here from Palestine to give you the second half of the talk of the day. Enjoy. Liba, please. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you, especially that I'm sick and I couldn't really take the train. And I felt so sad and disappointed that I was not physically with the group and with the audience. But I'm so glad that it worked technically. So yeah, I'm looking forward for the talk. Liba, I think we are waiting just for your statement to they call me an artist. Yes, now I hear you. OK, fine. I think we're just waiting for your statement for the talk of the day. So please just carry on. Yeah, I have these questions, actually, about being an artist in conflict times. And starting from 2011, I turned to be a Syrian artist, a female Syrian artist immediately, from being an artist, normally just an artist. So I guess this is really a kind of a mission and a burden at the same time that I also would like to start the discussion with how all of a sudden turned to be a female and then the nation, Syrian artist, and then in exile. So I guess this is really to start the discussion about how you turn all of a sudden from just being concerned about the content of your work to being an ambassador or missionary of a cause. So yeah, and this is the main transformation that has to do with politics and art all of a sudden that happens in, for example, in a career. Yeah, I don't know if you hear me because I... We can hear you, but you can't really have a proper dialogue because the sound quality doesn't allow that. OK. OK, so you just carry on with your questions. We can't just have a proper dialogue, but we would like to hear your ideas about this change in position that you've all of a sudden felt. Yeah, so I will just say some notes about, and then maybe I can hear you if you carry on the discussion so I can just hear from my place here is that, yeah, from that moment I really, I had a redevelopment of what doesn't mean to be an artist because now I'm not just an artist as I used to be and then my content really and my identification and how people receive me or the reception and the production was affected by politics in a very severe and acute way. So this experience really raised a lot of questions about the content, about the identity, and about to whom I am writing or to whom I am doing art because it used to be taking the situation in Syria. It used to be very local and very moving in the Arab taking the conditions of Syria cultural scene as being closed for a good while with the dictatorship. So and then all of a sudden, which language I use is a question to whom I'm writing to whom I'm doing that is a question, does it really represent Syria at this moment? So I turned to be from an artist to a representative. So these questions really I started to live with rather than I don't have answers immediately. I really I'm living this experience and added to that is the expectation of the other from me. So am I as a Syrian artist allowed to talk about a love story or I'm only always representing a cause? So all these questions that I have in mind is that can I for example now being a Syrian artist, female Syrian artist living in Germany, how would I be received? It is not the same as I used to be in Syria as a just as an artist writing about let's say an absurd play or writing poetry now everything I do is under an umbrella of definitions. Do I have the experience enough to talk about the host community I am in? This is a question. The chances the Syrian artists are getting is also a question, is it a matter of sympathy or a matter of quality? So all these questions about the allocation now I'm changing my location, changing my audience, changing the language and then that means I'm also changing, this is a question, am I changing the purpose? And how am I received in the new communities? I really would like to start the discussion and see what are expected from Syrian artists here and maybe as we exchanged in the notes before I still believe that it's too early to come back to come with answers. I feel it's always now a human experience to get to the answers. And I believe that what is happening is challenging and it raises questions and conflict and I do believe that conflict is a very healthy situation. I don't think that reaching a very neutral and dull zone is that what we are looking for. I think now the conflict that comes up with innovative answers is what I believe is worth the experience. Yeah. Good morning. Okay, this subject I think it's really huge once we ask somebody as the accidental they call us from the Middle East about how to present yourself or who you are. From my point of view, I think the problem as artists we are not seen first of all as artists. We are seen with our color or with our history and this is as a filmmaker and actor I start discussing everything from here because I have no project. I was like in Europe or U.S. I worked they did not call me because who I am as an artist. I think first of all they called me because I'm Palestinian and I look how you see and I can have very tough face but I really just finished a comedy film. Yes, I can be I think actors basically and actresses their job is to adapt themselves according to the character people they ask you to do. In my experience now, unfortunately I will tell you about when I played Martin Luther King. They tried to convince me that I look like him. I did not see that but finally as when I bought 15 kilograms more, okay, I had something on him and after watching the whole videos on YouTube I could see that. Why we did Martin Luther King as Palestinian we leave under occupation since 70 years ago. So we have if the Syrian they leave since 2011 then I have been like all the time and my father and my grandfather living with the same situation. So as actor I never had the chance to not have this stigma on me that people wants to work with me as Palestinian first of all or they don't want to work with me because I'm Palestinian. Actually this is more happening sometimes. Yeah, so when we did Martin Luther King why we have done Martin Luther King with the Palestinian National Theater because the American Cultural Center in Jerusalem they wanted to support the National Theater but with conditions. They proposed for scripts and the artistic director has to choose one. This is how it was. Later on we did the play. It was a play inside the play. So there is the improvisation and there is the play as Martin. So I was playing two characters. In the improvising when they assassinate Kennedy some of us we decided or we told that we should put the American flag on the coffin. And some of us for the long history as you know I think or you can imagine some of us said no. As improvisation. The first day we opened the play and the American console came. You could not believe. They said you should take this off you should put the American flag. We didn't do that. After on now if you apply as a Palestinian for the American to get any fund you should put on the poster not the name of US the flag. I'm not kidding Google it. You can Google it. So I wanted to start from here because I think art and artists or whatever we should be the most flying people. We should be like out of the siege out of the walls out. But this is not true actually what how how it's happening in the world. And this is related to as my own experience how now art the art scene everywhere. As I see I work in Europe and in US and in Palestine. I think we are all in the same point like we are trying not all most of us we are trying to produce art according to what we are watching on TV. And here we are falling. I have seen a lot of things about Syria but it was it was not enough at least how to express what are people leaving there. So this is the question like the need or why we need to work about this. And if we have just to take all the tragical stories every time happening I think there is the question. I can talk a lot much more but I would like to share with you because this is my point about talking about about all this stuff. No questions. I can tell you about for examples. No problem. I can't tell you for example because I'm an actor when I go to do a casting. I have very cold style. You want to call it minimum minimalist or whatever. So I don't have this way of shouting. Oh, oh, oh. When I do the casting usually with European and I'm not talking I'm not journalizing. They are surprised. They say like, oh, you can raise up your voice. You're not shouting. Perhaps you shout. This is yes. This is how they start. This is how they start. My latest film was in Morocco and I had to shout and I found it really like very difficult. Even like in the Moroccan they said but you are doing well. Why you cannot shout? I said because I don't see it. I can do it in different way for example because why we have to think about the stereotype of a person who is angry for example. So I think we got wrong from thinking about the story sometimes and the need of the content of the story why we have to do it. And after about how we can work about the characters. Just if we think about hallowed, how they present Arabs, how they present Arabs, they were the white and they put on the head. Do you know that in the Middle East nobody dressed like that? Yes, absolutely. You can watch the body as an example. Bad film but watch it. Everybody dressing the same. This is how people in the Arab goals they dress actually. But this is the marketing behind many projects. The stereotype. How we can just see this society. The funny things with how I look and because I talk Spanish in Paris when I work a lot of people they think that I'm Spanish. And Spain they think that I'm French because sometimes I have this accent when I talk Spanish. What I want to say that sometimes people even I have this face, like sometimes you cannot maybe recognize from where I am or if you hear me talking in Spanish so you will accept that I'm Spanish. I don't know if I reached the point that I think we should be more specific maybe about how to create a character and how this character could be in an alternative and artistic way to present a story. Especially if you decide to do a story it's not about your country which is so risky. My best film or one of my best films I participate it was a French film and the director he's young. His first feature film he took me for sure because I'm Palestinian and his friend and the story it's about the first world war. And the idea was a refugee from Palestine goes to France and he try to make his life there. You never listen about from where he comes but during the film hearing the dialogues with the puppet I had you can understand that this person comes from a hard place. And my question was why you don't want to say from where I come because I was surprised because everybody wants that. It's so sexy to be Palestinian sometimes. Yeah, it's so sexy. And he said because now Palestine or since seven years ago you are under occupation but in the future there is a new stories there is other people. So I want to do a film for everybody can face this situation. And this is great. Thank you so much Liva and thank you so much Ramzi. In the afternoon we continue this talk about all these questions we got now very briefly we go deeper in the panel, what's on our power? There you can meet again Ramzi and it's a short intro in our afternoon subjects. Have a lunch break and we see you again in the afternoon. Thank you. Sorry, I just would like to add something because there is I think there is a lot of directors, producers really like I don't want to say about what I said it's important but try to think about it. I will tell you something in Palestine we have no money for art, absolutely. All what we do it's co-production with Europe and there it's controlled. So just try if you really want to produce any piece of not even Palestine, any way, any place in the world just think about really that let's forget what we hear in the TV because they try to make like manipulation and try just to think and look on a specific subject and specific characters how you can tell the story because there is many ways and there is a lot of people in the Middle East, they really can do a lot of things that in Europe or in the US, they don't think that people can arrive to this point. Two years last year the best actor was in Venice was a Palestinian actor called Kamil Bashar and he did a story in a Lebanese film it was about Palestine but he won the best actor in Venice Film Festival. So what I want to say that always there is somebody can do much more than what we think about what we and how we get info about a society or a country and thank you.