Living in a dystopian future where the U.S. government is sending refugees and undocumented immigrants to a recently colonized Mars, a Syrian refugee misses her deportation launch and makes a musical connection with a local DJ.

"As a Syrian-American Muslim filmmaker, Barzakh is a personal film that uses the sci-fi genre to reflect upon the sociopolitical climate in the United States and the treatment of refugees and undocumented immigrants. In Arabic, “al-barzakh” means a physical barrier that separates two things or a spiritual state of in-between. Much like my own Syrian family, who had to flee to other countries during the war, Zahra is stuck where she is not wanted. Though the world will continue to create barriers and borders, art offers (as techno music does in the film), the hope, the glimpse, to permeate them." ––Karina Dandashi

About the Filmmaker

Karina Dandashi is a Syrian-American Muslim writer and director living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked for independent film companies such as A24 and Stay Gold Features. Her work focuses on women-driven stories that explore identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Arab-American and Muslim communities. Karina is the Silver Sun Diverse Voices Filmmaker Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center, where she will be making two shorts over the course of 2020-2021.