Discoveries from Lebanon World Cinema

A short film that navigates the filmmaker's intimate journey with death and other fears. Through the filmmaker’s inner monologue, the film explores the universal struggle with mortality.

A short documentary that tells the stories of Masrou’ Leila, a Lebanese rock band with an outspoken gay singer, and Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist. Both parties have experienced oppression because of their sexual orientation and beliefs. The film shows what it’s like for the LGBTQIA+ community to be oppressed and threatened by the governments in the Middle East.

The nostalgic retrospective of the time from a very candid perspective, over five chapters.

The inhabitants of a city awake one morning to find that never-before-seen trees, plants, and flowers suddenly erupted throughout the streets and in the squares. Strange and mysterious events start taking place as Camelia and Nahla investigate the origins of these new and peculiar creatures.

Salim is a simple farmer who loves Bedour and wants to marry her. He comes across a letter that he thinks is written to his lover, but it turns out that it's written by Bedour whom Ghawar loves and he returns from overseas with a pearl necklace for her.

A female journalist becomes re-acquainted with an Algerian ex- colleague when she visits Beirut, and begins an affair with him.

Throughout the three consecutive years Sarah has lived in Beirut, WhatsApp has been the only means of communication between her and her parents in al Yarmouk camp in Damascus. Sarah receives from her father a voice note of him singing her a song by Oum Kulthoum. It is through the voice notes exchanged with her parents that Sarah discovers that the war has reversed their roles: the adults have become children who devour memories of the past. She, meanwhile, asks herself: “What do my parents look like now?".

A performing group face failure and bankruptcy, then the sister of the singer comes to take her home. Because of her beautiful voice, the band's director asks her to work with them but she refuses. So he asks one of the band's members to act as if he loves her to make her stay, and it worked.

The events take place in a romantic comedy framework when a poor young man meets a rich girl in a strange situation, where he falls in love with her, and in order to reach her, he is forced to listen to his friend's advice to lie to her a white lie about his social status, which gets him into many situations. Will the girl discover the truth, and how will she act then?

In a village outside of Beirut, amidst scrap metal, chickens and goats, the quiet Fouad runs a mechanic’s garage with a detached but soothing presence. His customers, both old and young, are invited to sit and drink coffee while they wait for their vehicles to be repaired. In these moments of stillness, the garage becomes a haven for people to express their growing despair amidst the economic collapse that surrounds them. No jobs. Sleepless nights. The burden of school tuition. No one is safe. As the darkness closes in, Fouad must undertake a deeply symbolic, transcendent journey through his own psyche: a search for the other side.

In 2012, after a 10 months drama therapy workshop, the women inmates of a Beirut prison presented their play Scheherazade in Baabda inside prison to the audience. This film follows the women during these 10 months. The women tell their stories showing how difficult it is to be a woman in Lebanon, and in general in the Arab world, which is governed by a patriarchal mentality. They convey the voices of all women who are imprisoned by oppressive mentalities which in many cases lead women to crime.

When Nicole reveals to her childhood friend and cousin, Reine, that she’s been addicted to heroin since she was 13, they decide to document Nicole’s rehab journey. Hyphen follows her struggle to move out into the world as an adult and grown woman despite the lack of economic opportunities and a poisonous cultural upbringing that teaches young women to suppress their ideas and sexuality and to follow a set of religious and cultural rules.

The film unfolds an atmospheric symphony of violence over Beirut, revealing the haunting fusion of incessant Israeli military flights and the hum of generators during blackouts. This 45-minute video essay plunges viewers into a chilling chronicle of daily life transformed by the weaponization of the air, where the terror of repeated incursions becomes a disconcertingly banal backdrop.

Lebanon, 2018. War, politics or revolution: these are the choices faced by Georges, Joumana and Perla Joe. Three destinies and a shared desire to rebuild a troubled country. How is it possible to continue to dream when everything around is falling apart?

Tarek, a taxi driver delivers a passenger to an insane asylum called “L’Oisellerie” (aviary) for a brief visit. In this place of peace, whose inmates would like nothing better than their freedom, Tarek finds that leaving is not so easy.

A new devised work combining music and film based on extraordinary archive footage from the 1920s captured in Lebanon by Pathé and Gaumont. The piece takes us back in time, or rather brings the past back to life, a hundred years after these bodies, faces and eyes were caught by the camera, and the city of Beirut, tinged with its rich Ottoman history, was filmed by unnamed cameramen - anonymous figures behind and in front of the camera. Arsmondo wanted to give these images a fresh life, a presence among us, and asked musician Sharif Sehnaoui to gather a group of Lebanese artists to create a musical backdrop.

Directed by Muhammad Selman.

Adel, who works three jobs and takes care of his grandmother, falls in love with Roula and wants to marry her. However, her father disagrees because of Adel's low income and social status, and her Aunt fixes her up with a wealthy older man. Adel tries to win Roula back after a series of unfortunate ironic events, all in a sarcastic and weird way.

A bangla movie starring Pori Moni, Jef directed by Apurba Rana. Other actors playing important roles: Sucharita, Subrata Barua, Mizu Ahmed, Sohel Rana, Kabila.

Strange and life-threatening events in a construction site create tension between the Syrian workers and the Lebanese villagers. Tarek, one of the workers, becomes convinced that the site is haunted.

My hometown, Beirut, is torn apart by a corrupt political elite, anti-government protests, and one of the biggest explosions of the 21st century. But above the roofs of the city, I discovered an unexpected bearer of hope: the pigeon game of chance "Kash Hamam". Every evening, the sky populates, and all over the city swarms fly out of their cages. Their flight follows the choreography of an ancient tradition. Each player holds their own flock and lets it circle over his house, with the chance to lure the pigeons of the neighbors onto his roof to expand his flock. During the recent political collapse of Lebanon, we embark on a journey from roof to roof. When it all perishes, why do we hold on to flying? The film observes a city in turmoil from the perspective of three pigeon players and a young girl fighting to release her own birds.

Down-and-out Mich is working in a soup kitchen when Fadi, a Syrian refugee, causes some disturbance by cutting the line. When Mich’s bag disappears that same day, he begins to suspect Fadi. In a haze of alcohol and spurred on by his friends, Mich wanders the streets in search for his bag.

At every station, between sites filled with poetry and nostalgia for a bygone era, the poet's dashed dreams and idealized vision of her country coincide with the director's own.

Two horror-obsessed friends, Pit and Mich, head to their buddy Jos’s remote cabin for a wild weekend with their mutual girlfriend, Susi. Inside, they uncover and unwittingly open an ancient chest, unleashing a zombie outbreak in the surrounding woods. Soon, stranded travelers Jean-Yves, Chantale, Alain, and Trixie arrive seeking refuge after their car breaks down.

This heartwarming love story follows a father who turns to ultra-running in his quest to find a cure for his daughter’s condition. At the age of 59, in the aftermath of the Beirut Port Explosion of August 4, he embarks on an epic journey to run the Lebanon Mountain Trail (470 kilometers of rugged terrain), with his daughter Saria as his medal at the finish line.

A moving and graphic portrait of the people of wartorn Beirut in their day-to-day struggle to survive in the rubble and despair. Filmed shortly after the 1982 massacres at Sabra and Chatila, the film gives a vivid picture of the plight of these people and of any people who are too poor to escape the ravages of war.

Set in the early years of the Syrian war, Valley of Exile chronicles the journey of Rima and Nour, two sisters who find unexpected refuge in a makeshift settlement in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley after fleeing war-torn Damascus. Older sister Rima, who is eight months pregnant, is set on reuniting with her husband and rebuilding their lives in Lebanon, while younger sister Nour is determined to find their missing brother and eventually returns home to Syria.​ In the camp, the sisters forge alliances with other women who are similarly forced to live without the support of family they’ve lost to the war. This propels them onto separate paths. But as days in the camp turn to weeks, Rima and Nour begin to realize that their exile is not only a struggle for survival, but ultimately a test of loyalty to their country, their family and each other.

A number of police adventures carried out by both policemen and a group of stout-hearted women who join forces to catch an international gang that intends to wreak havoc on Beirut.

Two young men meet a beautiful girl in the mountains of Lebanon, she tells them about a treasure in the desert. They go to one of the Bedouin tribes, who welcomes them. Love grows between one of the men and the daughter of the tribe leader, but when a gang attacks the tribe to seize the treasure, the two young men protect them.

The artistic journey of Dahmane El Harrachi, born in 1925 in Algiers, bears the mark of his experience. An attentive and vigilant observer of the environment of immigrant workers, Dahmane has always avoided falling into the ambient miserabilism. From the Algerian Chaâbi, he has kept certain melodic lines and a clear propensity for sayings drawn from the oral poetic tradition. El Harrachi uses simple language, understandable by all popular sectors of the Maghreb, which partly explains its wide success. In 1949, he went to France and it was in cafes, springboard places where people come to breathe the air of the country, that he performed regularly. Elegant, with his beautiful atmosphere, the “bluesman” of the suburbs seduces, upsets and stirs consciences. Discovered late by the new generation, the creator of Ya Rayah met a tragic end, on August 31, 1980, in a car accident, on the Algiers coast which he sublimated above all else.

In the 19th century, in the Levant region, Salma Zahore, along with her parents and neighbors, participated in a photoshoot using a long exposure technique. At the end of it, Salma decided to take off her coat, revealing her body. Unaware of the chaos this gesture could cause within her circle, she did not know it could lead to shame (عيب).

Warda is a strange girl who appears in a field to convince people that it is a train station and that a train will arrive with the promise of a better life. The station's rumor reaches the mayor, the police chief, and the school teacher, who come to find out the truth. After they refuse to believe Warda's claim, they accuse her of causing chaos and problems.

Saleh lives in one of the Palestinian camps in southern Lebanon called Burj al-Shamali, at a time when Lebanon was suffering from the worst economic and fuel conditions. In the fuel crisis of 2021, there are fuel days, not for all residents of the area but for doctors, nurses, and taxi drivers. This has made it difficult to get fuel inside the Palestinian camps. Saleh has long been trying to obtain fuel in very difficult ways.

After signing a strict contract for human research, two men must survive 1460 days of isolation, locked up together in deep space.

Hanna, a melancholic woman, comes to Lebanon after 12 years absence. She wants to find her twin brother who has been kidnapped during the Lebanese civil war.

Using found footage from the colonial archives of British Mandate Palestine (1917 – 1948) and audio recordings of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Partition brings forth histories that have long existed at the margins. Co-director of the Nakba Archive, Diana Allan, re-photographs colonial found footage on 16mm to powerfully resituate Palestinian presence through story, voice and song.

In a valley veiled by fog and tribal codes, two sisters walk into the night not as daughters, but as offerings— where blood, memory, and silence attempt to keep the fire from spreading.

When peace seems impossible, any means are justified to defend a political cause. Hence, on the border separating the Palestinian territories that refuse to recognize the State of Israel, the idea of suicide commandos emerges. Jocelyne Saab films teenagers, aged twelve to twenty, who tirelessly train in a secret underground base to become suicide commandos.

Lebanon will be crossed by the train during a journey of research in the true sense of borders and exhumation in identity and belonging.

Perched in a tower high above Beirut where they monitor the world below through their sniper lenses, two soldiers in the Lebanese civil war find love in their watchful seclusion. The film sketches a humanistic portrayal of two men in love at war and the fragile and violent circumstances that allow them to stay together.

Luxembourg is rich, Luxembourg is quiet, Luxembourg is safe. Why leave this apparent heaven? From Northern Canada to tropical paradise, from Jerusalem to the desert kingdom of Gobir, this film is about Luxembourgers who had to leave their home country, in order to find themselves better at home. A question spurs this trip around the world: do we want to remain who we are?

Lebanese film directed by Nicolas Abou Samah, starring Father Youssef Mouannès and other Maronite friars. In 2022, in the interview given by Father Mouannes talking about the film, they continued to be a reference in Lebanon. He says that no special effects were applied in recording the striking scenes, such as the miracle of the light bulb and the different seasons of the year filmed in their natural succession. The realism of the film ended up occurring in an accident in the final scenes, where the priests carrying a stretcher slipped and knocked the actor into a frozen pond, damaging his lungs to this day.

Yousef Srouji’s childhood in Palestine wasn’t something that he and his parents spoke of as a family, so when he found a box of his mother’s home videos from the early 2000s, an especially perilous and tumultuous period in the West Bank, the tapes became a means for remembering and comprehending a painful past. The stories she captured illuminate the nature of life in a war zone, and familial bonds that cannot be broken. – Bedatri Choudhury (DocNYC)

The film revolves around the Lebanese civil war, which took place in the seventies of the last century through a group of young men and girls friends who are exposed to different stories, some of whom prefer to flee the country and survive with their lives, and others decide to continue, so one of them loses his entire family in one of the bombings, which causes him nervous shock that makes him enter the hospital after losing his memory

While watching a documentary about her hometown, Zgharta, filmed in 1966 during challenging and critical times, the filmmaker found a familiar face. She decided to re-edit specific sequences from the documentary to raise questions about image ownership and the village’s heritage.

Walid and Aida, husband and wife, are reunited after Walid’s many years spent living abroad. Answers to long-hidden secrets are sought in Sarah Francis’ careful unravelling of an estranged marriage.

Late in the 1980s it seems like the Lebanese conflict will never end. Khalil returns to Beirut after many years. Ten years earlier, during a battle, he took advantage of the confusion and pretended he was dead.

In Mount Lebanon, sixteen-year-old Alya’s first love sparks a longing for freedom, forcing her to navigate her mother’s strict rules and society’s judgment while making choices that push her into adulthood.

A collection of interesting and exciting adventures presented by (Abu Salim Al Tabl), as he returns this time with his comedy troupe once again in a new adventure in (Africa), and many strange events occur that (Abu Salim) tries with His friends overcome it.

A successful businessman finds his life turn upside down after his suitcase is stolen by a teenager whom he follows into a poor neighborhood. While he embarks on a journey searching for it, he encounters a huge turn of events that will change his life forever.

Omar, a photographer, has a special experience with death. He is trying to express it through a new project. One day, three photo sessions and witnesses. Between the walls of a studio, one photographer and three people meet up after a casting. Bodies express stories of sex, love and trauma in the city of Beirut.

A man and a woman lie in bed after making love. With each passing moment, new emotions surface, shifting the course of their story.

Follows inmates from Roumieh Prison in Lebanon who produce a play about their fellow prisoners who suffer from mental illness and are thus filed under 'Mad and Possessed' by the Penal Code and forgotten behind bars for life.

A young woman makes her way back home to her parents’ house in the middle of the night leaving a bad experience behind. Haunting pressures to fit back into the family dynamics as well as revealing details of her life abroad weigh heavy on her. Feeling cornered, her anxieties resurface, leading her to find solace in another part of her Beirut life that she had forsaken. A life that is for her as familiar and foreign now as it ever was.

Etel Adnan’s last words recorded by her close friend, the Lebanese historian and writer Fawwaz Traboulsi, on colours, Nietzsche and poetry. Twenty years after her film Etel Adnan: Words in Exile (2007), the filmaker returns to find Etel Adnan’s lost voice in a Lebanon marked by ongoing historical fractures.

Set against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the film explores themes of land, honor, and survival through the story of a family caught between fleeing their homeland or submitting to life under occupation.

In his journey through the depths of his past, a man finds himself submerged in a flood of nostalgic memories shared with his grandmother. As he searches for an answer, he ponders the fate of his deceased poplar tree, yearning to know if it still breathes with life.