Freedom for Ghanem Almir, the syrian cinema sound engineer

On Thursday morning, the 2nd of october 2012, as he was participating in the shooting of a feature film with the Syrian Director Mohammad Malas in Tartous, the cinema sound engineer Ghanem Almir was arrested by the Military Security Services of Tartous, in a hotel.

His family and friends have not received any news from him since then.

Ghanem Almir was born in Damascus, and gratuated from the university of Paris VIII in Film Studies. He worked a long time in France within the field of cinema. Then he came back in Syria, his native country. He knew how to put his expertise to good use in Syrian Cinema in collaborating on many short, feature and documentary films.

Ghanem Almir is considerated as one of the most brillant sound engineer in Syria, and contributed in the development of sound-recording and sound-engineering in the Cinema.

He notably worked on the documentary film La Route des Rois (2010-France) written and directing by Christophe Cousin, I am the one who brings flowers on her grave (2006-Syria) of Hala Alabdalla, the feature films Clara and I (2004-France) of Nicolas Bilder, From Owner to Owner (2006-France) of Brice Cauvin, Victor (2003-France) of Clément Riere, Les histoires d’amour finissent mal en général (1993-France) of Anne Fontaine, Before vanishing (2005-Syrie) of Joude Gorani, Diaspora (2005-Jordanie) of Ula Tabari, or the documentary film Roundabout Chatila (2007-Liban) of Maher Abi Samra.

He also collaborated in many french short films : The Shells (2003) of Nathalie Bouttefieu, Judicael’s collection (2003) of Corinne Garfin, An Eye for an Eye of Sylvie Caiballet.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained in Syria for supporting the uprising against the Assad regime. Intellectuals, artists critiquing the government have become targets for the authorities, some of them beaten or tortured, sometimes killed. These include singer Ibrahim Kashoush, whose throat was slashed and his vocal cords ripped out in July 2011, and cartoonist Ali Ferzat, whose hands were broken in August 2011. There are many more. Other filmmakers detained or killed including Shadi Abu Fakher (July 2011), Ali Sheik Khoder (September 2011), Orwa Nayrabia (August 2012).  Bassel Shehade (May 2012) and Bassam Yahya AlDin (July 2012) have been killed.

We are calling for the release of Ghanem Almir and are considering the syrian regime responsible for any prejudice against him.