DHAKA: Qusai Abtini, a 14-year-old boy who played a role in the first television comedy produced in rebel-held parts of Syria, was killed when a missile struck a car he was in as he tried to escape the city of Aleppo.
Abtini was 10 years old when protests first erupted against the rule of President Bashar Assad in 2011, and took part in the demonstrations, often sitting on his older brother's shoulders.
He spoke in opposition videos, criticizing Assad’s government and describing Aleppo’s destruction. At the same time, he took part in school plays.
Afraa Hashem, his school’s director, introduced him to Bashar Sakka, the director of the sit-com ‘Umm Abdou the Aleppan’.
“Qusai was a very talented boy,” Sakka told the media, reports Al Jazeera. “We were looking for an intelligent boy,” he said from southern Turkey via Skype.
“We wanted him to be free with ideas, and without fear of Bashar Assad’s regime and its ruthlessness.”
“He was very ambitious,” Hashem said. “Once he moved from acting in plays to TV, his dreams broadened and worked on transforming what he was living through into his performances.”
“Umm Abdou the Aleppan” was set in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, taking place in the stone alleyways of one of its old neighborhoods.
The title character, Um Abdou, was played by a young girl named Rasha, while Abtini played her husband, Abu Abdou.
BDST: 1500 HRS, AUG 02, 2016
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