Shahd Fylm Threads-our Tapestry Of Love Mtrjm - May Syma 1 | Fresh |
When she played the old silent film next to her new one, something miraculous happened. The old grandmother on the screen stopped weaving. She turned her head, looked directly at the camera (and thus, across time, at Shahd), and smiled. She pointed to the golden thread.
Shahd traveled to Damascus. In an old souk, she found a dusty shop. Behind a wall of pomegranate crates, hidden for forty years, was the actual tapestry from the film.
The tapestry showed a couple dancing under an almond tree. But half the tapestry was burned. The black thread wasn't just broken—it was charred into nothingness. The "love" story was a tragedy. shahd fylm Threads-Our Tapestry of Love mtrjm - may syma 1
The translation was complete. Love had finally found its language.
On the back of the loom, scratched into the wood, was a phrase in Aramaic (the language of Christ, the language her grandmother whispered in her sleep): "Al mayyit la yihki, lakin al khayt yihki." (The dead do not speak, but the thread speaks.)
Using her own golden thread (hope), she wove a new scene next to the burned half. She wove a young woman (herself) sitting at a computer, watching an old film. She wove the hard drive labeled "May Syma 1" into the corner. And she wove the words:
