Story

Simon S Safieh

Official Website

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Showreel

Showreel

Biography

Biography

Like all children, one day I tried to catch the thread of light coming from the sun.
That might be where the story begins… or with that small orange toy, an 8mm camera my uncle gave me when I was a child of no more than five.
Or perhaps the story truly began on the Corniche of Tartous, where at fourteen years old, I was walking toward “Old Tartous” to watch a screening at the cinema club. I don’t know if I realized then that I was heading toward my destiny.

At the Tartous Cinema Club, I saw for the first time a different kind of cinema. These films were not crowded with superheroes or tales full of legends. It was cinema that resembled life: its heroes were real people, walking in narrow streets, drinking coffee in simple kitchens, and sleeping under windows overlooking life.
The camera approached their daily details as if holding their hand and saying: “You matter, you deserve your story to be told.”
At that moment, I felt this cinema spoke about me, the teenage boy in a small city on the Mediterranean, who carried the sea in his heart and dreamed that the world would listen to him, even once.
The club taught me that cinema is not only what we see but what we feel. Those weekly screenings pushed me to dive inside myself, to discover my identity on screen, and to believe that the image can be a mirror, and the Narrative can be a path

film, by its synthetic nature, allows me to transform reality into what I wish for or what I do not wish for it to be!
I see what is happening today as an exceptional moment in the course of history, and I am driven by the desire to document it as a record that time will keep to tell future generations what happened.
To be precise, I do not see war as the subject of the films I produced in Syria, but rather the human in war

Like all children, one day I tried to catch the thread of light coming from the sun.
That might be where the story begins… or with that small orange toy, an 8mm camera my uncle gave me when I was a child of no more than five.
Or perhaps the story truly began on the Corniche of Tartous, where at fourteen years old, I was walking toward “Old Tartous” to watch a screening at the cinema club. I don’t know if I realized then that I was heading toward my destiny.

At the Tartous Cinema Club, I saw for the first time a different kind of cinema. These films were not crowded with superheroes or tales full of legends. It was cinema that resembled life: its heroes were real people, walking in narrow streets, drinking coffee in simple kitchens, and sleeping under windows overlooking life.
The camera approached their daily details as if holding their hand and saying: “You matter, you deserve your story to be told.”
At that moment, I felt this cinema spoke about me, the teenage boy in a small city on the Mediterranean, who carried the sea in his heart and dreamed that the world would listen to him, even once.
The club taught me that cinema is not only what we see but what we feel. Those weekly screenings pushed me to dive inside myself, to discover my identity on screen, and to believe that the image can be a mirror, and the Narrative can be a path

film, by its synthetic nature, allows me to transform reality into what I wish for or what I do not wish for it to be!
I see what is happening today as an exceptional moment in the course of history, and I am driven by the desire to document it as a record that time will keep to tell future generations what happened.
To be precise, I do not see war as the subject of the films I produced in Syria, but rather the human in war

My Work

My Work

Art Work
SARDINE’S TRYING TO FLY | 2019
I Don’t like the color red | 2019
2km of Jobar
Divide … Conquer
Green Line
Underground, Above the Sky and Among Olive Trees | 2015.
Rwaeda
2000 watts, Light in Depth
Social Projects
Shoghoul Shabab – Youth in Action for Peace
Dal Platform – A Better Inclusion for Society
AlMasna’ – A Creative Hub in the Heart of Syria
Peace Lens– Art for Social Change
Poor Film – The Voice of Independent Cinema in Syria

Press

Press

“The Tunnel”: From Passage to Shelter Amid Displacement
“On the Road”… A Young Man Films Syrian Streets for the Nostalgic
Director Simon Safieh: In “Sardine Tries to Fly,” I follow a hybrid documentary-fiction line, searching for identity in non-identity
Simon Safieh… Our Life Is a ‘Can of Sardines’
Simon Safieh Contemplating Concepts of Identity and Belonging
Simon Safieh: I make films to connect with people, and cinema is my way to discover the world

Support

Support

Basma (We Resist to Bring Back a Smile) is a national volunteer organization for children with cancer and their families. It began operating since November 2005 and case seeds started in November 2003

Contact

Contact

Contact
info@simonsafieh.com

Website Story

Since COVID-19 reshaped how we connect with the world, many artists and filmmakers have turned to online platforms to share their work. Yet over time, I felt that releasing a film for a short time on a mainstream platform doesn’t give the work the life it deserves — nor does it foster true dialogue with its viewers. That’s why I created this personal space: a direct channel where I can share my films and creative projects, freely and continuously — away from the noise, at a rhythm that feels more human