A dance performance, evoking traditional and contemporary Arabic songs, telling the stories of mothers and their families. A beautiful, pain-saturated story about a mother, or rather mothers, losing their children to the wars plaguing the Middle East, a world constantly torn by religious and ethnic conflicts – shown from an unusual, private perspective. Choreographer and dancer Ali Chahrour has invited his relatives – Laila Chahrour and her son Abbas, who became involved in the military at the age of 18 – on stage. Together, they tell the story of Fatima (Ali’s aunt and Laila’s cousin) and her journey to find her son Hassan, who has been missing in Syria since 2013. They are accompanied on stage by Syrian actress Hala Omran performing songs and musicians Ali Hout and Abed Kobeissy – the performance is accompanied by live music performed on traditional instruments. The songs we hear are a voice asserting the right to mourn the dead, to grieve, to know the fate of the missing children and to bury them. It is a story spun to save their memory and to survive…

Ali Chahrour is an acclaimed choreographer from Lebanon, whose performances, including “Told by My Mother”, have been staged around the world at prestigious festivals for years, having been presented several times in Avignon and at Kunstfest Weimar, among others.