This work is by an artist from a nation whose citizens were being denied entry into the United States, according to a presidential executive order issued on January 27, 2017. This is one of several such artworks from the Museum's collection installed throughout the fifth-floor galleries and in the Agnes Gund Garden Lobby, and presented in our theaters, to affirm the ideals of welcome and freedom as vital to this Museum, as they are to the US.
Al-Yazerli. 1974. Syria/Iraq. Directed by Kais Al-Zubaidi. Screenplay by Al-Zubaidi, based on a novel by Hanna Mina. In Arabic; English subtitles. 95 min.
With Abdallah Abbassi, Adnan Barakat, Nadia Irslan. In his neorealist experimental narrative, Kais Al-Zubaidi follows a day in the life of an impoverished boy who is forced to quit school to find work on the docks. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Al-Zubaidi has lived as a German citizen in Berlin since 1993 and resides between Berlin and Damascus.