- Film
From Journalist to Filmmaker: Ali El Arabi and “Captains of Za’atari”
After directing and producing documentaries for the German TV channel ZDF on the refugee casualties of Middle Eastern wars that were dismissed as simply statistics, or producing images in news bulletins, Egyptian journalist Ali El Arabi decided to quit his job and live with the Syrian refugees in the Za’atari camp in order to get to know them closely and understand their needs. "I felt guilty, so I wanted to shed light on their plight from their point of view and not from an external point of view,” El Arabi said at the last El Gouna Film Festival.