Discoveries from Lebanon World Cinema

The film blends horror and mystery to reveal the hidden changes that transformed the face of the Earth."

The lamb borrows the wolf's mask for bravery. Exposing one's true feelings is never an easy task. The son chooses to confront his ex-militant father, he wants to know, he wants to be sure: "Who are you Daddy? I need to know... Murderer or Hero?" An intimate open letter, sent out from generation to generation, thus setting a pathway for an intriguing confrontation. "The truth hurts, but silence kills."

The film “Peony” is Christine's graduation project. It tells the story of Omar, a young man haunted by the memory of his parents' drowning, who tries to overcome his fear of water by teaching his little sister to swim, thus transforming his pain into hope.

The Lebanese filmmaker makes several trips from Germany back to her home city of Beirut over the course of the three years following the onset of a catastrophic economic collapse in the country in 2019. She tries to make sense of a life enmeshed in crisis, born of one and heading towards another one.

Based on a research project “Master-Planning in Lebanon: Manufacturing Landscapes of Inequality” by Public Works Studio, the film looks into the inevitable result of policies relying on commodifying and financializing the land, a permanent loss on all levels – physical, social, private, and intimate.

The work revolves around a comedic framework, about the character of (Abu Salim), who goes through many different and funny situations and anecdotes that are considered a mirror of society and what it goes through.

I am the all knowing, the deceased. I live among you and have seen the imam Mehdi master of time, may god hasten his arrival I sit with him, he talks to me and he tells me of what was, and what will be. He spoke to me about the time of revelation, the signs and what will come. I am the all knowing, the deceased, I have fought in the name of our lord and his prophet. I have seen the revelation during my life and after my death.

At 14 years old, Zinia discreetly steals the spare keys of her own house, after her parents decide to sell it subsequently to a murder of three family members. Today at 21 Zinia uses these keys as a healing tool to her and her Family.

A disillusioned man, seeks guidance from his 40-year-old future self in a quest for meaning amidst the chaos.

Julia Boutros in live concert at Tyre on 2018.

Lebanon. A young woman visits her conservative family. But she's haunted by the end of a relationship with another woman. Can she keep it together? Should she tell the truth and risk being abandoned, or keep lying to her family?

An intimate and moving short documentary where a young Franco-Lebanese director has a heartfelt exchange with her mother, Kawssar, as they spend time together in her late grandmother's house. In a space now filled with nostalgia and emptiness, Kawssar recounts how Lebanon's civil war drove her into exile and how she had to cope with the loss of family members, all the while poring over her mother's diaries. A transgenerational story, Mon Raison d'Être explores grief, loneliness and motherhood, lifting the veil on things left unsaid. A delicate journey of a filmmaker and her mother, struggling within their own relationship and ultimately trying to heal together.

Living’s not for everyone, hold on to your mother tongue

Audiovisual poetic essay film on the empty streets of Beirut.

Raed comes out of prison years later to raise his son and decides to leave the crime path, but he faces problems with the gang boss, who wants him to rob a bank, and with his ex-wife, who wants to take his son from him and live with her rich husband, assisted by his friends Akram and Sami

A group of women being blackmailed by a gang in order to get them to steal money, the women struggle with all their skill, with the help of a security officer, to trap the gang

Paul and Anna live together in a remote, small house surrounded by woods. A place out of time. Yet, as the place progressively crumbles down, and the elements start to run amok, Anna has a deep foreboding of the possible end to come...

An intimate dialogue that weaves back and forth between representations of a figure (of resistance) and subject with, *Soha Bechara ex-Lebanese National Resistance fighter in her Paris dorm room taped (during the last year of the Israeli occupation) one year after her release from captivity in El-Khiam torture and interrogation centre (S. Lebanon) where she had been detained for 10 years, 6 years in isolation. Revising notions of resistance, survival and will, recounting to death, separation and closeness; the overexposed image and body of a surviving martyr speaking quietly and directly into the camera juxtaposed against her self and image, not speaking of the torture but of the distance between the subject and the loss, of what is left behind and what remains.

When she must leave Cairo after 8 years of living in it, a filmmaker creates a love letter to the city and its people.

A filmmaker follows a pigeon fancier in Beirut as he interacts with his birds and narrates his relation to the sky. Now, if you look at the sky is a video that takes the form of a ritournelle, a refrain, where lines, colours, and sound constitute a territory.

You’re in a bathroom. You meet an Ai called H.E.R.A, a reflection of your every intimate desire. What would you like to see?

Nour’s body reclines in the emptiness of her basement as her mind reflects on one of her most intimate experiences.

Balconies from another land.

They were orphans, the children of martyrs of the Palestinian revolution in the late sixties. These boys and girls lived and studied in a mixed orphanage in Mount Lebanon in the town of “Souk el Gharb”. It was a challenging existence for these young students. Some of them found salvation in the folk troupe founded by artist Abdallah Haddad in the early seventies. As they mastered cultural traditions, they became icons of the Revolution and toured the world in an era of global solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Decades later, the hundreds of martyrs’ children, now adults, are dispersed in several countries. The long abandoned orphanage still stands bearing the scars of civil war. Memories of this time of geopolitical and personal conflicts are revisited through the memories of former students who share personal narratives of displacement, martyrdom, loss and deprivation, and stir questions related to identity, sacrifice and homeland.

A brutal soundscape of noise combined with philosophical analysis.

After a big battle with cancer, Carine has only one solution to keep her life: organ donation. In a country where everyone is born a donor, transplantation was a realist-savior phenomenon. But if this French scenario was placed in a Lebanese setting, would Carine still be here today to tell us her story?

A young man in Beirut's crime-ridden underbelly tells the story of his death.

After the death of his close uncle, Ali Akil goes down a path of continuous self-destructive coping mechanisms and indulgence to clear his guilty conscience after his relationship with his uncle turned rough during his final days. He shares his story in this film as a final attempt of redemption and to reconnect with his late uncle.

As Lebanon faces a devastating economic crisis, its citizens lose access to electricity, transportation, water, and healthcare. In response, Joa Antoun begins offering free tattoos to breast cancer survivors who have undergone a mastectomy, treating her clients’ breasts as a canvas for incredible pieces of art. Although tattoos are still considered a taboo in much of the Middle East, Joa and the women who come to her for help allow these tattoos to become a tool for healing and transformation.

Join Charlie and six lucky kids at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Amidst whimsy, a jealous villain named Grinchitout exploits their flaws. Charlie's character shines, revealing the true meaning of the factory's secrets.

After Hilton's door had been closed for many years, the light was finally seen when the director decided to send a public invitation to watch his Big Show inside the ancient art shelter "Hilton Cinema - Al-Mreijeh District". As soon as the show began, he was surprised by another realistic show, to explore the past and history of Hilton Cinema, which was the silent witness to many of the harsh circumstances that occurred in this region.

Eight Lebanese artists, brilliant and determined, share their passion and talent on stage at the Al-Madina Metro Theatre in Beirut, a magical place where their paths have crossed and their dreams have come true. Since 2013, evolving off the beaten path, they continued to perform, successfully, tirelessly, until 2020 – as long as the heart of Beirut continued to beat. A moving film by Georges Hachem that celebrates resilience and the power of art.

Just like all Lebanese people, Alfred — a high-school teacher — tries to adapt to the new socio-political situation caused by the Lebanese October Revolution. Overwhelmed by the media coverage, he ends up joining his students on the field to protest for change.

This documentary offers a window onto the life and work of the iconic artist, Huguette Caland. Caland had an epiphany, leaving everything behind and moving to Paris to pursue her career as an artist. With a bold and experimental spirit, she pushed the formal boundaries of art to reflect a feminist impulse. A prodigious artist, she became recognized for drawings, paintings, and sculptures that embody a joyful, exuberant, and erotic sensibility.

Like every night, the sun is setting over Beirut. Nour leaves her home to join friends gathered in an apartment. As the last rays of light disappear in the sky, layers of sounds echoing traces of past events every night in the accumulate atmosphere. But tonight seems to be different. Different characters have been complaining about a pervasive migraine. Others have noticed a persistent whirring sound looming over the city. The sonic scape gradually turns into a strident sound. Time seems to suddenly dilate. The night is prolonged, slowly turning into an eternal night. Mira Adoumier

Salma and her mom left their village to escape the bombing. As Salma’s swing got burnt out in the bombing, Salma’s mother first concern is to make a new swing to help her sick daughter get better.

When the Beirut explosion occurred, my first thought was that of relief that my grandmother had passed a year and some before. The best hours to sit outside among her plants and flowers were those of sunsets. How does one mourn when they are grateful for the occurrence of some deaths as salvation? How does one mourn when in separation, we spare the ones we love the end of their world?

From their 'Purple House' in the South of Lebanon, French-Iraqi director Abbas Fahdel and his Lebanese wife, the painter Nour Ballouk, start exploring a multifaceted country that seems to be on the edge of the abyss.

After seeking emotional refuge within a secluded eroding hotel, a family is at crossroads between continuing to live in coexistence within dynamics of violence or choosing to break past their trauma.

Performance and scripted exchanges are spliced with protest footage from Brooklyn to Beirut to map the potential for transnational solidarity.

This unusual tale follows a woman who is either a suicidal prostitute or a character in an unfinished film created by an avant garde director.

In the Lebanese wintery wilderness, a mini-van arrives. Two men get off the van into the cold forest and set off on their quest. The tall trees and the grey sky are their witnesses. Armored with a shovel, a rope, and an axe, they soon arrive at their destination: a lonely verdant tree amid the naked forest.

Beirut 2019 - During the Revolution. On her way back from a protest, Farah, a young Lebanese woman and her French - Lebanese boyfriend, Anthony, are stopped at a roadblock held by two armed militiamen who have a bone to pick with Farah.

Within a documentary framework, the film monitors the cinematic careers of three of the most influential directors of Lebanese cinema, as Christian Ghazi, George Nasr, and Nabiha Lutfi with a focus on the impact that each of them left on the history of Lebanese cinema.

A Hungarian oral storyteller, and a Lebanese filmmaker—arriving in Budapest from a different era. Each bringing their own stories and entrusting their words to one another rather rhythmically, they weave a layered visual story.

A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. Using footage from the Lebanese film "In the Battlefields," as well as "Candy" and "The 100," and audio from archival recorded Lebanese funeral laments, the video looks at how men and women express grief and anger under the patriarchy, as well as how trauma and childhood experiences can evolve into mental illness and patterns of behaviour as adults. "Clench My Fists" is part of a larger body of work dealing with racial identity and the concept of "inherited grief;" that through biological or behavioural means, trauma is passed down through prospective family generations so that family members might experience the residual effects of trauma they did not personally witness. This body of work explores how the death of the artist’s grandfather, an Arab American, caused ripples of mental illness and skewed racial identity through her paternal family.

Tracking the public administration of light and darkness as an essential policing tool, the video moves between cities like New York and London, with the artist’s native Beirut setting the central pulse. Creating an associative genealogy that moves from whale oil lamps to gas lanterns to LED bulbs, from blackouts to curfews, the video is comprised of found footage and material from the artist’s own phone.

A woman arrives in Lebanon in search of a missing man, whom she met in Iceland a few years ago. Here, the buildings and landscapes still bear the traces of past conflicts, and the missing friend's absence is haunting the deserted and labyrinthine streets of Beirut. The siren song of the sea draws her to the south, towards Earth's mystical centre.

Eat drink and sleep