In 1982 Paolo Dall'Oglio, an italian Jesuit, decides to bring back to life the 6th century monastery of Mar Moussa in the Syrian desert to found a community dedicated to frienship between Christians and Muslims. Over time Mar Moussa becomes a touristic hotspot and a symbol of peace in a region devasted by religious tensions. In 2011, the civil war breaks out in Syria. In 2013, Paolo disappears mysteriously at the headquarters of ISIS in Raqqa, leaving his small community at a loss. In 2023, I travel to Mar Moussa to see what is left there of Paolo’s utopia.

Director Biography - Justine Aurelia Malle

After a year of at Brown University and a postgraduate research degree in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Justine Malle, daughter of late french director Louis Malle and canadian actress Alexandra Stewart, interned in a parisian publishing company and translated into french texts by Greil Marcus and Jonathan Rosenbaum. In 2003, after an internship on a movie by Anne Fontaine, she directed a short documentary called “Shanghai notes” and in 2004 another short documentary called “Light in April”. In 2006 and 2008, she directed two short fiction films called “Cet été-là” and “Surpris par le froid”. In 2011, she made her first feature length fiction called “Youth”, selected in Rome, San Francisco, Cleveland, London, Montreal, Copenhaguen, Shanghai film festivals in 2013. From 2014 to 2018, she worked on a script for her second feature film, “Les Grands bois”, with an Austria-Luxembourg production company, which has not yet been directed. In 2020, she came back to documentary film making with a project about a monastery in Syria dedicated to interreligious dialog, which became “Mar Moussa”, finished in October 2024.