Notturno

My son, I feel your presence

in these windows, in these walls.

God has decided I had to live without you.

The Turkish state is to blame,

they have had no mercy, they have been ruthless.

Why did you leave me alone with your kids?

My son,

this prison is for the wicked and you were good.

I can feel your presence in this room,

I feel you as if you were

still on my breast and in my womb.

I thank God.

What has God done!

I feel your presence by touching this wall.

I can feel your hands, I can touch you.

I am relieved, I can feel you.

As I touch the wall, I feel your blood.

My son, I would have sacrificed myself for you.

My son, why didn't they take my life

instead of yours?

Why did they lock you up in here?

My son, you left these signs on the wall.

We weren't able to have a life together,

we weren't able to have a future.

You couldn't say goodbye to your mother.

I can't feel your presence any more.

Here you were beaten.

Here you were tortured,

here's where they killed you...

[Generator stops, indistinct conversation, car horn]

Look at the sky, how beautiful.

- Soon it will rain. - Yes.

God be praised.

It will rain on us.

Let it rain.

Is there anything more beautiful than the rain?

- Cheers. - To your heart.

My darling.

Where is it?

Give me the drum.

Here.

PSYCHIATRIC WARD

[Music plays - "Mawtini" by Saja Al-Maghasba]

[Wailing continues, man speaks indistinctly]

[Wailing continues, man speaks indistinctly]

My friends, among all the patients here,

I chose you to work on this play.

This play talks about our Homeland

and talks about the crucial moments for our countries.

The military coups,

the monarchy, the republic,

the tyranny, the wars,

the invasion, the occupation, the extremists and ISIS.

All those things...

we've put them in this play.

We're going to work together

and if you are willing to work with me, I'll be very happy.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to give you the scripts, so we can start working.

Walid.

Farid.

Kifah.

Ahmed.

Abbas.

Mayade.

This script was written in keeping with your abilities,

it has been adapted for each of you.

Does anyone have any questions?

If you don't have any questions,

you can go off and start memorising your lines.

"We will not die,"

"we will resist and the Homeland will resist."

"For every martyr who dies for the Homeland,"

"a thousand more will be born."

"We will not die, we will resist and the Homeland will resist."

"For every martyr who dies for the Homeland,"

"a thousand more will be born."

"I don't know,

"I don't know why all these distressful things are happening to us."

"I don't know what will happen to you, my country,"

"due to ISIS, infiltrators and corrupt governments"

"that placed the interests of the foreigners above the local ones."

"I don't know your destiny, my Homeland."

"I don't know what the future will be."

"You too will have a God, my Homeland."

"We will not sell this Homeland."

"My brothers, we will not sell this Homeland."

"The Homeland is calling us, it needs us."

"If we lose the Homeland, we are all lost."

"This country has taken the road of death,

"the 'red death' awaits us.

"We can turn this page like all the other pages,"

"but it will stay in our memories for a long time."

"We're running and running,"

"we don't know where we're going nor when we'll arrive."

"Everything is lost in this country."

"The foreign army entered the country to liberate it, but they occupied it."

"The American invasion destroyed every beautiful thing."

"The invasion caused"

"problems and the civil war."

"Neighbours started killing each other, so many people were displaced."

"They were fleeing the country, terrified by the slaughter."

"The streets swarmed with dead bodies,"

"car bombs, explosive belts."

"We lost all sense of safety,

"terrorist organisations infiltrated the country,

"al-Qaeda and ISIS killed people based on their ethnicity.

"They wanted to take the country back to the Dark Ages,

"they built a dark state,

"where women were sold as spoils of war.

"Everything is lost.

"I expected a wonderful spring, a spring of roses, peace and love.

"But it became a spring of wars,

"a spring of people of the same country killing each other.

"A spring of rubble and darkness,

"a spring of governments seeking

"to place their own interests above those of the citizens.

"You too will have a God, my Homeland. "You too will have a God, my Homeland.

"You too will have a God, my Homeland!"

This is your best performance.

At last.