A deeply moving film about <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/2021/08/19/a-broken-house-syrian-artist-mohamad-hafez-is-the-focus-of-new-short-documentary/" target="_blank">Syrian artist Mohamad Hafez</a> is among 15 titles shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Subject at the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/film/2021/11/12/oscars-2022-best-picture-hopefuls-10-films-from-shakespeare-to-sci-fi/" target="_blank">94th Academy Awards</a>. Presented by <i>The New Yorker</i> and directed by Jimmy Goldblum, <i>A Broken House</i> takes viewers into the life of Hafez, who after moving to the US on a single-entry visa to pursue his education and a career in architecture, starts recreating scenes of his home city of Damascus as a way to deal with his homesickness. "If you can't get home, why don't you make home?" Hafez says in the 20-minute film. Hafez then begins creating miniature models using scrap materials that he comes across. The models, which feature scenes of Syrian homes, were kept private until he started exhibiting his work in 2015. In 2019, the Sharjah Art Museum presented a solo exhibition of the artist's work titled <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/hints-of-hope-and-life-and-triumph-artist-mohamad-hafez-on-his-new-exhibition-in-sharjah-1.955330" target="_blank">Journeys from an Absent Present to a Lost Past</a>. The show included works from his <i>Baggage</i> series as well as <i>Hung Memories</i>. "There was this fire inside to start humanising refugees and to tell their stories," Hafez says in the film. He is also later shown interviewing a displaced Syrian man whose life has been affected by the war in Syria. Intimate and personal,<i> A Broken House</i> also features Hafez's parents, showing the toll war has on families and relationships. In one scene, Hafez, while visiting his mother, asks her to move to America, but she insists on returning to her home country. “What do you have in Syria?” he tearfully asks her several times. Nominated films for the 94th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. <b>You can watch 'A Broken House' in full below:</b>
