THE FILMMAKER
Zeina Al Qahwaji is a Syrian documentary filmmaker.  She started working in the documentary film industry in 2010. In 2017, she obtained her master degree in documentary filmmaking at the DOC NOMADS Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree program. She has recently completed her first feature length documentary Sugar Cage, and she is in the process of developing her next feature. 

THE RESIDENCY
At BAR, Al Qahwaji predominantly focused on the post-production and editing of her first feature length documentary Sugar Cage. In an attempt to record a standstill life, the filmmaker trains her camera to examine the intimate life of her aging parents over the course of 8 years since the beginning of war in Syria, observing scenes of isolation, fear and stagnancy that overshadow life at home still yet equated with enough sensibilities and love, bonding them together against the heaviness of time and war.