Dalya’s Other Country

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Film phase:Completed

SYNOPSIS

In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Dalya’s Other Country is directed by Julia Meltzer.

Julia Meltzer is an award-winning filmmaker and the founder and director of Clockshop, an arts organization. She previously directed The Light In Her Eyes, a feature film about a Qur’an school for girls in Damascus, Syria. The Light In Her Eyes was broadcast on PBS and toured with the Sundance Film Forward program. Her work has been shown at the Whitney Biennial, IDFA, The Toronto International Film Festival, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Meltzer is a recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship, the John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Foundation and was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in Syria.

NOW PLAYING

Dalya’s Other Country premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2017 and was broadcast on POV by PBS. The film toured through Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina with the Southern Circuit, and also screened throughout colleges nationwide. You can request Dalya’s Other Country for educational screenings through Good Docs, or purchase a DVD for personal use here.