Dounia: The Great White North

DIRECTORS. Marya Zarif is a a multidisciplinary artist, and boasts fifteen years of experience making content aimed at young audiences. Born in Syria, Zarif grew up in Aleppo and is therefore familiar with the ordeals and challenges Syrians have been faced with since the beginning of the war. In 2013, she co-created the Maison de la Syrie to pay homage to Syrian culture. In 2015, she co-founded Je veux jouer (I want to play), a foundation whose purpose is to transform the lives of Syrian child refugees through games. In 2020, she created, wrote, and co-directed her first animated web series for young people, Dounia, which was soon followed by the film Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo (2022). Dounia: The Great White North is her second film. André Kadi arrived in Canada in 2007 to work as a graphic novel author and musician. He then joined Frima animation studios, where he worked for over eleven years. As the head of the artistic department, he founded a branch of the studio in Bordeaux, and opened a 2D animation studio in 2012, where he made the series MaXi and Agent Jean, before co-founding Du Coup Animation in 2018 with Marie-Michelle Laflamme, then Du Coup Production in 2021. A rigorous studio head who directs most of Du Coup’s projects, he co-directed Dounia (2020), Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo (2022), and Dounia: The Great White North with Marya Zarif.