Before i forget

BEFORE I FORGET

A documentary short by Razan Hassan

2018 / GERMANY, SYRIA / 11 MIN / HD

Website: fb.me/beforeiforgetfilm

What if you could never return to the place where your memories were made? Razan Hassan’s documentary short, Before I Forget, is an autobiographical exploration of how memory and identity are fractured by forced displacement. Following her journey from Syria to the Netherlands, Razan begins to question the veracity of her recollections of home, family, and childhood. She tries to recapture a fragment of this lost past through digitizing the sole memento she carried with her from Syria: a tape recording of a poem she recited as a 3 year-old child – only to find that the tape has been corrupted and its contents are forever lost. Razan takes us along on an inner journey of emotional trauma and conflict visualized through psychedelic club scenes, archived family footage, and a news clip of her family home in Damascus collapsing during a raid by regime forces. While her daily life in Amsterdam remains unfamiliar, she is able to forge new memories in unexpected places. 

Behind the scenes

Take a peek behind the scenes of Before I Forget
Before I Forget (2018)
Post-production, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Before I Forget (2018)
London Migration Film Festival, London, UK
Before I Forget (2018)
Principal photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Before I Forget (2018)
Director Razan Hassan
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Awards/Festivals

Winner, Best Director, Symi International Film Festival 2018
Winner, Best Documentary Short, ARFF Amsterdam 2019
Winner, ARFF International Award 2019

2018
St. Louis International Film Festival
Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase (Texas)
London Migration Film Festival

2019
Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase (Hollywood)
ARFF Amsterdam
ARFF International Awards (Berlin)
Bethlehem Student Film Festival
Cinema Arabe Amsterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR young talent network screening)
Queer and Migrant International Film Festival

2021
Leiden Shorts Festival