Synopsis
Shaping a memoir of my personal return, in the jasmine vines is an assertion that the amalgam that makes my complex identity belongs, gifted by my grandfather and his story and honoured by the generations following his. Forming an imagery of complex memory, archive, story and imagination, this film is a learnt way to place my existence within a narrative. And so, I look for the scents they carry in the jasmine vines.
A word from Tënk
in the jasmine vines opens with images from the past. Home movie on what we imagine to be a VHS medium. From then on, we find ourselves in the intimate and the unknown. Yet we recognize certain signs. We imagine a family, the love of one's dearest, one's land or what we call one's home. We recognize images, or rather we try to reconstruct them. It's not our own experience, yet there's something familiar about it. The power of Nada El-Omari's film is that it crosses the boundaries (or barriers) of personal experience. We witness in an intimate way a story that is not our own. The film is built like a collage that honors memory. So that we don't forget these precious times. In this gentle, fragile balance, the director takes us on a journey through time. From the past, she sends us a message of courage for the present and its future. For her family and her country, and in so doing, inscribes itself in eternity.
Miryam Charles
Filmmaker
