Omar Amiralay, a Syria-based documentary maker and one of the most influential filmmakers in the Arab world, died February 6 at his home in Damascus of an apparent heart attack. He was 66. According to a report from ABC News in Australia, Amiralay was very supportive of the ongoing uprising in Egypt, having signed a declaration by independent Syrians a week ago. Moreover, he was critical of his own country, stating recently, "I live in a country steadfastly marching on its hooves to its own demise, after it was betrayed by its rulers, deserted by its brainpower and abandoned by its intellectuals. My cinema is no more than my expression of scorn at the despair and tyranny that governs life around me, and the role of man in compounding it with more hopelessness and abuse."
According to an entry in Wikipedia, his most notable work is a trilogy of documentaries about the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates--Film Essay on the Euphrates Dam (1970, Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1974) and A Flood in Baath Country (2003)--in which he examined the impact of the development project on the lives of the citizens who live near it, as well as its larger political ramifications. Everyday Life in a Syrian Village earned two awards the 1976 Berlin Film Festival.
As a political activist, Amiralay was a signatory, in 2000, to the "Declaration of the 99," a manifesto signed by 99 prominent Syrian intellectuals calling for "an end to the state of emergency in force since 1963, the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and the permitting of political parties and independent civil society organizations." In 2005, Amirilay signed a declaration by Syrian intellectuals calling for a withdrawal by Syria from Lebanon.
According to the ABC News report, most of Amiralay's work has been banned in Syria, whose cinema is heavily controlled by the government. Amiralay studied film in Paris, at La Fémis, the French state film school, whose formidable roster of alums includes Louis Malle, Costa-Gavras, Alain Renais, Claire Denis, Patrice Lecomte and many others.