Six years old and holding nothing more than a few nigella seeds, Dounia sets out from a city she is leaving behind for good.
What is Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo about?
Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo tells the story of a six-year-old girl who leaves Aleppo carrying a handful of nigella seeds in the palm of her hand. Guided by the Princess of Aleppo, a figure who watches over her along the way, Dounia travels away from the only home she has known and toward a world she cannot yet picture. The film treats her journey as a child would experience it: full of wonder and uncertainty in equal measure, with small, tangible objects like the seeds standing in for everything she has had to leave behind. It is a story built around departure and the courage a young child finds when the choice to go is not hers to make.
About the cast
The voice cast is led by Rahaf Ataya and Elza Mardirossian, alongside Manuel Tadros, Raïa Haïdar, Marya Zarif, Mohsen El Gharbi, Naïm Jeanbart, and Mustapha Aramis. Together they bring the film's small cast of characters to life across Dounia's journey.
Context & significance
Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo is a 2023 animated family film, a Canada-France co-production directed by Marya Zarif and André Kadi. Running 72 minutes, it is built for younger viewers without simplifying the weight of what its young heroine is going through, using animation to soften a story about leaving home while still taking that experience seriously.
Watching Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo on Ktime
The film is available on K-Time with a Persian dub, making it an easy watch for Farsi-speaking families and young viewers who prefer to follow along without reading subtitles. This page can be read by anyone; watching Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo itself just requires logging into a K-Time account, with no payment card needed to browse the catalog. K-Time is built around a Farsi-first experience for Iranian families abroad, and animated titles with dubbing like this one are chosen with younger audiences in that community in mind.