Actualités
Danser sur un volcan
On August 4th, 2020, the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut leaves a large part of the Lebanese capital in ruins. In the midst of the chaos, a troubled film crew face an overwhelming decision: to continue the production of their movie or abandon it? As they face the aftermath of the catastrophe, they are torn between their firm belief in the transformative power of cinema and a deep sense of cynicism about its ability to effect change in a nation plagued by economic turmoil and societal collapse. Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano chronicles their struggles and highlights the crew’s resilience as they strive to find meaning and purpose in their work amidst the devastation. Official selection – Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – 2023
Le dernier piano
Karim, a pianist dreaming of a career in Europe, lives in a war-torn Middle-Eastern town where modern ways of living have been banned by an extremist group. He is forced to sell his piano to gather money and leave. But things entangle when his piano is shot. Karim then embarks on a dangerous quest to...
Miguel’s War
Teddy Award for Best Feature Film – Berlinale Panorama – 2021Sélection officielle – Festival du nouveau cinéma – 2021Sélection officielle – NewFest NY – 2021Sélection officielle – Raindance Film Festival – 2021 MIGUEL’S WAR is the story of a gay man who grew up oppressed and shamed during the Lebanese civil war. Raised by a conservative Catholic father and an authoritarian Syrian mother, teenage Miguel was inhibited by a deep inferiority complex and was incapable of asserting himself. In 1983 the deeply sensitive boy, desperate to prove he “exists” and can act like “a real man” joined the fighting as part of an armed faction. But his experience was a failure. Traumatized he immigrates to Madrid, Spain. In post-Franco Madrid, Miguel seeks to liberate himself through debauchery. A string of destructive relationships lead him to a failed suicide. Trying to pull himself together, Miguel becomes a conference interpreter in Barcelona. Only then, thirty-seven years after leaving Lebanon, Miguel feels ready to face his trauma and the ghosts of his past, and hopes to regain his emotional balance and maybe even find love. Using intertwining cinematic forms, melding documentary, animation, theater and archive and filmed on location in Lebanon and Spain, this feature film hopes to offer an experience of self-confrontation, awareness and catharsis.
Little Palestine, journal d’un siège
Official Selection – Vancouver International Film Festival – 2021 Official Selection – RIDM – 2021 Official Selection – ACID Cannes – 2021 Interreligious Award – Visions du Réel – 2021 The district of Yarmouk (Damascus, Syria) sheltered the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in the world from 1957 to 2018. When the Syrian revolution broke out, the regime of Bashar Al-Assad saw Yarmouk a refuge of rebels and resistance, and set up a siege from 2013 on. Gradually deprived of food, medicine and electricity, Yarmouk was cut of the rest of the world. Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in Yarmouk and lived there until his expulsion by Daesh in 2015. Between 2011 and 2015, he and his friends documented the daily life of the besieged inhabitants, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger with rallying, study, music, love and joy. Hundreds of lives that were irremediably transformed by war and siege, from Abdallah’s mother who turned into a nurse taking care of the elders of the camp, to the fiercest activists whose passion for Palestine got gradually undermined by hunger…