SAYōNARA PRESS MATERIAL
International Film Festival Rotterdam wrote:
Eyad fled to Denmark from Syria. He now spends a lot of time alone in his room, feeling lost. His mother takes care of him but is concerned about what will happen when she is gone. Danish director William Andreas Wivel brings in his personal experience of losing his mother and creates a touching farewell, which examines the emotional complexity of saying goodbye to a loved one while losing yourself in the process.
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal wrote:
Director William Andreas Wivel films Eyad, a young Syrian man who has fled across Europe and is now holed up in an apartment in Denmark. Eyad spends a lot of time in his room, learning Japanese or sleeping for days on end. In the kitchen, his mother is adjusting to her surroundings. As she cares for her son, she worries about what will happen to him when she’s gone. Observing the pair’s daily activities and capturing the complexity of their emotions, the filmmaker evokes his own experience of mourning his mother. Feelings of longing and loss – of loved ones, and by extension oneself – bring the filmed and the filmmaker closer, united in a touching farewell to the past and the people we hold dear. (Charlotte Selb)
Directors statement:
The film insist on the individual, on making the individual visible by showing its complexity. I try to incircle a certain state of mind. In this film I believe in making the position of the story teller visible. Only by bringing my personal story forward I may ask the same of the them. To ask for a reflection of feelings and to try and sow a precarious woven net that makes our worlds more entangled.