Al Basateen

In 2015, the Basateen al-Razi district of Damascus was razed to the ground as punishment for the population’s uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. This area is set to be replaced by Marota City, a modern and connected district featuring 80 skyscrapers. Ten years later, having lost everything, two former residents reflect on their neighborhood, where their homes and the oldest orchards in Damascus once stood. Through their testimonies and the repurposing of regime-produced 3D animations, memory is awakened and resists this deliberate erasure.

Antoine Chapon is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. His work creates hybrid forms using cinema, CGI animation, and archives. His first short film My Own Landscapes (2020) premiered in Visions du Reel where it won the Best Short Film Award. It was then selected in more than 40 festivals, such as Sundance, Telluride, Palm Springs, Sarajevo, and Premiers Plans. His work has been showcased at ZKM|Karlsruhe, Centre Pompidou, the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Singapore Art Museum. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and is currently writing his first feature-length documentary.

Director Antoine Chapon. Screenplay Antoine Chapon. Cinematography Juliette Barrat. Editing Laura Ríus Arán. Sound Design Ryo Baldet. Sound Olivier Pelletier. Producers Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff. Executive Producers Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff. Production company Petit Chaos (Orléans, France).

World sales Square Eyes

Films: 2020: My Own Landscapes (18 min). 2025: Al Basateen / The Orchards.