My Name Is Hope

Sherwan Haji: My Name Is Hope (FI 2025). The reflection of the missile in the eye.

Sherwan Haji: My Name Is Hope (FI 2025). The reflection of the missile in the eye. My screenshot.

FI 2025. Aalto University ELO Film School. P: Kari Ahotupa & Hadi Nikzad.

    D+SC: Sherwan Haji. Cin: Máté Papp – colour – scope 2.39 – 25 fps – 3800 x 1800 – release format: 4K DCP. Set design: Ville Väisänen. Cost: Katri Koppanen. VFX: VFX Helsinki / Lasse Kilpiä. M: Oliver Wegmüller. S: Saku Anttila – Dolby Atmos / 7.1 / 5.1 / 2.0. ED: Jette Keedus.

    CAST:

1. Rozelina Ahmad – Amal (Hope)

2. Hassan Alssaleh – Old Janitor

3. Mazen Aljibaee – Old Guard

4. Jalal Hajali – Young Janitor

5. Youssef Alkhatib – Gheiath

6. Mao Mohammed – Rebel leader 

7. Kardo Shiwan – The Prisoner

8. Simon Al-bazoon – Officer 

9. Mazdak Nassir – Sheikh 

Mao Mohammed (rebel leader), Soroush Seyedi (young prison guard), Joudi Chikho (young woman on motorbike), Ramithawi (young man on motorbike), Nour Chikho (soldier carrying missile 1), Hadi Nikzad (soldier carrying missile 2), Ebraheem Abu Smra (voice of soldier carrying missile 1), Shareef Askar (voice of soldier carrying missile 2), Waad Mahmood Abed (prison soldier 1), Juan Haji (prison soldier 2), Shareef Askar (rebel 1), Radouane Al-Zoudali (rebel 2), Abdelkader Gharbi (rebel 3), Delberin Muhammed (rebel 4), Sebastian Granskog (rebel 5)

    21 min

    Language: Arabic. Subtitles: English (by Said Dakash), Finnish.

    Master of Arts diploma work.

    Genre: war.

    Tampere Film Festival 5 March 2025 – Golden Shade Equipment Rental Prize for Cinematographer Máté Papp.

    Love & Anarchy Helsinki International Film Festival 18–28 Sep 2025 – R&A Shorts main prize.

    Viewed at the Aalto University ELO Film School Student Film Screening, Bio Rex, Helsinki, 20 Dec 2024. (Embargo).

    Revisited in November 2025.

    2026 Jussi Awards Nominee: Best Short.

    Vimeo link for Jussi Awards viewed at home in Paris, 27 Feb 2026    

ONE LINER IN ENGLISH

"You are alive as long as someone remembers your name."

ONE LINER IN FINNISH

"Olet elossa niin kauan kuin nimesi muistetaan."

SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISH

"A student is locked in a Syrian prison, where he observes the absurd routine of a senior janitor training a recruit. As the flames of the Arab Spring fade, prisoners keep alive the dim light of resistance in a world that has chosen to forget them."

SYNOPSIS IN FINNISH

"Syyrialainen opiskelija tarkkailee eristyssellinsä ruokaluukun kautta kahden talonmiehen omituista arkea ja päätyy lopulta todistamaan maansa tuhonnutta valtataistelua pienoiskoossa."

IMDb: "A short film capturing the timeless struggle between oppressor and oppressed in an era where forgetfulness becomes the deadliest weapon against freedom."

AA: Having seen Sherwan Haji's Master of Arts piece / masterpiece My Name Is Hope in December 2024 at the Aalto ELO Film School autumn screening I ranked it among the best films of the year 2024 but was not allowed to write due to an embargo.

Set in a Syrian prison, My Name Is Hope is based on the concept of limited vision. It takes place in darkness., literally and metaphorically. What little we see is through a narrow hatch.

The film is also based on a principle employed by Fritz Lang in M: in portraying events of unspeakable horror, the best way is not to show. The impact is greater.

The janitors see the writing on the prison wall. As the inmates have no pens, they use their own blood. They are intellectuals, scientists and artists, more than in any university. "Our task is to erase what they have written". The janitors use hydrogen peroxide, as taught by a chemist who used to be there. Those who think are in prison. Those who don't stay free. Curiosity is dangerous.

"My name is" is a refrain. It is banned to identify oneself. A prisoner about to be taken to the "amusement park" shouts: "I have a name! I'm Gheiath!" He is kicked and beaten to pulp. When the prison guards are gone, the fellow inmates shout: "Husam Alwaar!" "Juan!" "Ayman!" "Mishaal!" "Fares!" "Munir!" "Murad!" "Abdelbaset!" "Sultan!" "Adam!" The impact is that of "I'm Spartacus!"

A tremendous attack of the liberators is followed by total silence. A woman 9 months pregnant (kept there to put pressure on her father) gives birth. “My name is Amal (Hope)”. The baby who might be  stillborn announces itself the way babies do.

Excellence in all departments: acting, cinematography, sound design.

Sherwan Haji displays poetic insight in the opening images of an extreme close-up of an eye and a long take of a missile piercing the darkness. The dimension of poetry is again enhanced in the moving finale.

The most important element in a movie is energy. That My Name Is Hope has. Its charged imagery moves along on a quiet and assured power drive like the missile lighting up the darkness.

20 December 2024 was the date of the film's first screening. On 8 December, the Assad regime had fallen, making the movie appear as a prophecy fulfilled.