Lama Sawaya

Movies

We Are From There
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Jamil and Milad are brothers with very different personalities. Jamil is a get-up-and-go carpenter, following in his father's footsteps. Milad is a sensitive trumpeter and dreamer. As their home country, Syria, sinks further into war, Jamil emigrates first to Beirut and then makes an illegal journey to Sweden. Milad stays in Damascus, but eventually can’t take it any longer and decides to leave to Berlin. Their cousin Wissam records their journey for over five years, bringing back childhood memories while questioning the true meaning of home. The traumatic war in Syria plays a background role in this documentary, which focuses more on the psychological effects of being uprooted and the way the brothers, who had previously hardly travelled, deal with emigration. It draws with humility and admiration the human ability to cope with change, as radical as it can be. Jamil and Milad are achievers, each adapting his own way.
Fragments From Heaven
Sound Mixer
The Moroccan desert is famous for its recurring meteorite falls. Fragments from Heaven tells the story of Mohamed, a nomad who lives with his family in a tent in a remote area of the desert. In order to change his family’s hard living conditions, he decides to go in search of meteorites. It is the story of Abderrahmane as well, a scientist who relies on this meteor debris to pursue his research on the origins of the Earth and life. Both of them, don’t imagine that this quest will take them far beyond simple hunting. Behind those objects, lie the fragments of human complexity.
Memory Box
Sound Editor
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.
Trumpets in the Sky
Sound Mixer
Boushra, one of the potato-picking girls, returns from a long day of work in the field only to learn that today her childhood will come to an end.
Trumpets in the Sky
Sound Editor
Boushra, one of the potato-picking girls, returns from a long day of work in the field only to learn that today her childhood will come to an end.
Moss Agate
Music
A visit to a cosmetic-surgery clinic and the discovery of a lump in his testicle and an abscess in his mouth confront filmmaker Selim Mourad with transience and decay in this unashamedly navel-gazing film essay. ‘Selim from Beirut’ is the last in a long list of names of extinct species he recites during a loveless Grindr fuck.
Moss Agate
Sound Designer
A visit to a cosmetic-surgery clinic and the discovery of a lump in his testicle and an abscess in his mouth confront filmmaker Selim Mourad with transience and decay in this unashamedly navel-gazing film essay. ‘Selim from Beirut’ is the last in a long list of names of extinct species he recites during a loveless Grindr fuck.
Honeyland
Foley Artist
When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
Bonboné
Sound Designer
A Palestinian couple resorts to an unusual way to conceive as the husband is detained in an Israeli jail where visits are restricted.
Salamat from Germany
Sound Editor
Desperate to escape Lebanon and settle in Europe, Lillo buys himself a Syrian passport and is ready to appropriate the Syrian identity to obtain asylum. However, what he might not be ready for yet, is everything that comes along with being a Syrian refugee today.
Cargo
Sound Director