Orwa Nyrabia Arrested

Shocking news! This text came in 5 hours ago from Diana el Jeiroudi, filmmaker, producer, co-founder of the Dox Box Film Festival in Damascus and partner of Orwa Nyrabia:

“Syrian film producer Orwa Nyrabia disappeared this afternoon on on his way heading to Cairo at 5:00 pm, on August 23, 2012. I lost contact with him soon after his arrival at Damascus International Airport. According to Egyptian Airlines, he did not board the plane, which indicates that he was arrested by the Syrian authorities at the airport. Orwa Nyrabia, born in 1977, is a film producer and the director of the DOX BOX Film Festival in Syria.”

Orwa Nyrabia is the one, who since March 2011 has collected and spread information about the atrocities and massacres on the civil population in Syria. Readers of filmkommentaren will know his name from the many postings we have done based on his reporting. He is known and well respected in the documentary community all over the world and has – together with Diana el Jeiroudi – been awarded for his work to create awareness for the importance of the documentary film in his country and the Middle East region.

I am sure that friends and film people all over will shout to the Syrian regime: Free Orwa Nyrabia!

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Articles: 3933