How Shall We Greet the Sun explores the personal stories and emotional landscapes of young women refugees living in the Netherlands, including Thana herself. Published as a book, this project reflects their shared and individual journeys, balancing the challenges of forming new identities within the diaspora with the nostalgia and trauma of their pasts. These women navigate lives shaped by new cultural contexts, power dynamics, and memories, exploring how identities are continuously reshaped by current circumstances and the homes they left behind.
Within this larger project, a short film offers an intimate lens into the fragmented memories of women migrants, mediating between the joy of reclaiming normalcy and the sorrow of loss. It juxtaposes Randa’s reflection on the simple yet profound joy of having a private bathroom in a refugee camp with Thana’s mother in Yemen, who shares a family photo filled with faces of those who have passed away in her absence. These intertwined recollections reveal the paradox of creating new memories in post-disaster settings while being haunted by the weight of what was left behind. The film reflects on how memory shapes a sense of belonging and how emotional exile emerges from the tension between joy and grief.
“We are in a kind of archaeological restoration program, where we try to build and construct a new life over the ruins of our past losses. Our homes are under construction. Our bodies are under construction. Our finances are under construction. Our identity is under construction.”
Through her multidisciplinary work combining photography, textual narratives, and moving images, Thana Faroq encapsulates the resilience of women migrants. Her visual and textual explorations serve as a poignant reminder of the continuous process of rebuilding life and identity amidst profound changes and loss.
Here’s a video description:
This short film explores the fragmented memories of women migrants in the Netherlands, navigating between the joy of reclaiming a sense of normalcy and the sorrow of loss. Mediating between two personal stories, the film contrasts Randa, who reflects on the simple pleasure of having a private bathroom in a refugee camp, with Thana’s mother in Yemen, who shares a family photo filled with faces of those who have passed away in her absence. These juxtaposed memories reveal the paradox of constructing new memories in post-disaster settings, where the weight of what was left behind haunts the present. Through these intertwined recollections, the film reflects on how memory shapes a sense of belonging, and how emotional exile emerges from the tension between joy and grief.
Credits :
Created & Directed: Thana Faroq
Edited: Ruba Al Sharaki, Michelle Gachet Vega
Supported by Mondriaan Fund, Netherlands
Runtime in minutes
Women participants: Randa, Marwa, Nour, Zahra, Hellen and Thana’s mother Fathiya
Country of origin
Yemen/Netherlands
Spoken language
Arabic
Subtitle language
English
