Syria’s Top Goon: Art and the Arab Spring

The Cultural Frontline

BBC Arabic reporter Dima Babilie marks 10 years since the Arab Spring and speaks to poets, film-makers and artists about how that moment of revolutionary change transformed their lives, their countries and their art. When the protests first broke out in Syria, Dima was a student studying English Literature at the University of Damascus. Everything changed as anti-government protests took hold in Syria. One of the most creative forms of protest from that time was the satirical puppet show Top Goon by the Syrian collective Masasit Mati. Dima spoke to one of the team behind the show Rafat al-Zakout about creating art in Syria and now in exile. Capturing the mood, or reflecting the feeling of a people is a great challenge for any artist, particularly during a conflict. The Palestinian film-maker Najwa Najjar has dedicated her work to just that – telling the story of ordinary Palestinians through film. Dima spoke to Najwa about her reflections on the Arab Spring, the lives of Palestinians and her career in film.

Plus Algerian poet Samira Negrouche talks to Dima about how the politics of the past and the present both set her home country apart and connect it with its neighbours in the Arab world, through a shared cultural and natural landscape. Presented by Dima Babilie

(Image: Top Goon. Credit: Art collective Masasit Mati)