Mohamed Oussama

Toren, the grandfather, son and grandchild, a three-generation story about a forgotten and endangered people who went through constant persecution and genocide throughout history. Toren is the escape of the survivors in search of different countries for protection and had to integrate into a new different society. Toren is the search for belonging, complete devotion, and a struggle for survival. Toren is today’s Hamlet « to be or not to be ».

• In a desperate attempt to preserve his ancestors’ identity rooted in the Mesopotamian Civilization, Toren, the grandfather, fled with his family to Georgia at the time when his people was subjected to genocides. Toren the son, 26-year-old talented painter born in Georgia, faced an unfair confrontation between past and present and with a different society oblivious to his family’s customs and traditions. Toren suffered a lot that he rebelled against his own identity, especially when his parents past away while he was still a child. He was thus brought up by his grandparents and older brother, Meraz. His success in painting did not free him from his internal struggle and his fatal illness, which created a conflict between life and death. He suffered from severe psychological isolation, which he could not escape until he met his beloved Eka, 24-year-old doctor, and started to recall his family’s advices. Toren’s family decided to return to the land of their forefathers, but fate was on the lookout for a new wave of genocide; this time at the hands of ISIS. As a result, Toren’s family members were all killed.Toren, is a story of everyone, who is being forced out of his homeland due to wars, oppression, massacres and had to integrate into a new different society. Toren is today’s Hamlet. The film talks about loss and deprivation, clash of civilizations and religions, about love and peaceful coexistence. Toren represents the philosophy of the struggle between death and life and the struggle for survival.

  Note: The project was filmed in four languages, the final version is dubbed in Arabic and listed as main language, there is English subtitle. The dub has been done for artistic reasons.