نجوم النهار
Stars in Broad Daylight (1988)

Stars in Broad Daylight (1988)

Directed by: Ossama Mohammed

In Stars in Broad Daylight, Ossama Mohammed crystalizes an era of Syria, following a small town family near Damascus as they prepare for a double wedding celebration. As the chaos of the event unfolds, images of power, dictatorship and a violent patriarchal society intersect with the characters on-screen—in the water, the smoke, the advertisements, the mirrors. The film is reminiscent of Ettore Scola’s 1976 masterpiece Down and Dirty, where the poor individual becomes an allegory for power in society. This layered, frame-within-frame dialectic of the rural man in the city is a true and honest portrait of its time, and for all its worth, Stars cannot be overlooked as one of the best pictures produced in Arab cinema history. — AHMAD ALHAJ

Country of Origin: Syria

Run Time: 1h 45m

Language: Arabic

Rank in the list: 77th

Genre(s): Drama

Synopsis

Opening with the paradoxical declaration “I am a free man,” Ossama Mohammed’s masterwork uses the microcosm of a rural Syrian family to explore the psychology of life under dictatorship. In a coastal village, the preparations for two weddings become a devastating study of power and control, centered on Abbas, a despotic older brother whose resemblance to Hafez al-Assad is no accident. Mohammed transforms domestic spaces—seen through cracks, dusty windows, and broken mirrors—into a stark visual poetry that reveals how authoritarian violence seeps into society’s most private corners. Banned in Syria after a single screening but celebrated at Cannes, the film draws on influences from Georgian comedy to Federico Fellini while establishing its own powerful visual language. This restoration, from The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, recovers a vital work by a director who, despite living in exile since 2011, continues to probe the complex relationship between beauty, justice, and political repression.

Notable Cast and Crew