About the film
A Flood in Baath Country is a Syrian documentary film by the director Omar Amiralay, released in 2003 and premiered in 2004 at the Beirut Cinema Days Festival. The film, Amiralay's last, criticizes the Ba'athist regime in Syria, particularly the Tabqa Dam construction project and the party's impact on political life and education in the country. In A Flood in Baath Country, Amiralay repurposes footage from his first film to criticize his initial enthusiasm for the Ba'ath Party.
Footage for the documentary was shot in the Syrian village of al-Mashi and on Lake Assad. Though banned in Syria like most of Amiralay's films, A Flood in Baath Country was readily available domestically on pirate DVD. After a satellite broadcast of the film was seen by Syrian viewers in 2006, Amiralay was arrested and restricted from leaving the country.
A Flood in Baath Country has been acclaimed by critics and scholars of film, and won the award for the best short film at the 2004 Biennale des films arabes in Paris.
From the film's Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).