film "Solo".. "Latakia musician" He rises from his tragedy to the highest levels of giving and achievement

Cairo: Hany Kamal El Din

The screening of the documentary film “Solo” within the Ismailia International Film Festival was never normal. Many of those present in the city’s Palace of Culture hall shed tears mixed between sadness and joy, after they lived a true story, complex in all its details, conveyed by the film, which is expected to reap something from it. Festival Awards.
The film follows the story of the Syrian youth, Gabi Sahyouni, whose family and relatives discovered that he was blind at the age of four months, due to his suffering from visual atrophy, which ruled him to be blind for the rest of his life.
According to the film, which lasted eight full years, during which it documented many details in the success story and the volatile life of “Gabe”, the misfortunes of this young man did not stop at the loss of his sight. When he reached the age of four, it was discovered that he was suffering from another disease, which is “alabaster bone”. As his mother recounted during her appearance at work, a disease that prevented him from walking on his feet, confined him to a wheelchair, and prevented him from playing his favorite game, which is football.

Little by little, Solo narrates everything that Gabi, known as the “Musician of Latakia”, went through, starting with his learning of music and his love for it, until he reached the highest levels of his work, through opening his own institute and starting to teach music and composition to a large number of Syrian artists. Among the most prominent of them was the singer Faia Younan with the song “Your Face Ya Sweet”, as well as the song “Zadti Bdalalak” by Muhammad Majzoub, and many others.
Gabi also appeared as an effective and important musician in the artist Nassif Zaytoun’s band, but his illness and health did not help him to continue much, so he closed his music institute, and returned to teach it from his home, as the young man himself appears at the end of the film describing his condition, saying: “It is not a requirement that you will always be The hero of the story, it may be better and more comfortable to sit in the place of the extras.” And he made his decision to return to the ranks of the extras after he was exhausted by the great successes, and his health condition did not always help him to pursue them.

Gabe’s determination completed the film
The producer of the work, Mustafa Al-Kilani, explained that this whole project is directed by Zahra Al-Boudi, and the idea came with the aim of presenting the story of a young man who wants to be an ordinary person, despite the opposition of life to him, and the great difficulties caused by his illness.
He emphasized that the modesty of the production was due to the fact that the film was carried out with simple machines, and did not find the appropriate support, and was filmed in a somewhat old style, but they were insisting on communicating this experience and story to the world.
Al-Kilani added that the length of the filming period was due to the health conditions of the hero of the work, who was forced to enter the hospital many times, and that with the advent of the “Corona” pandemic, the deterioration of conditions, and Gabi’s health conditions, the director decided to stop filming the work, but the Latakia musician was the one who insisted with great determination. To complete it to the end.
According to Al-Kilani, the most important hero in the story of “Gabi” and the movie “Solo” is his mother, who gave him hope in life.

His life
The art critic, Mohamed Diab, believes that the case of the film presents a character who is hostile to life, but he managed to tame her little by little.
Diab added that the work was divided according to the musical scale “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So”. Each of these scales carried many details in the life of “Gabi”, and overflowed with different and sometimes contradictory feelings, which create a mixed mixture of feelings. When attending the movie.

Some of the stars who formed part of Gaby’s success story, whether by supporting him or their friendship with him, appeared in the film, and gave their testimonies about him in parts of the work, including, in particular, the actor Abed Fahd, the singer Faia Younan, and Nassif Zeitoun.