An evocative personal essay reflecting Beirut's difficult recent past and uneasy present. Lebanese sound designer Rana Eid's feature debut pens a filmic letter to her deceased army father. Delving into her childhood memories, merging them with the audio and underground landscapes of modern Beirut, Eid notes "the wars have multiplied, and we have lost sight of the enemy."
Amal is fourteen years old when she goes to Tahrir Square in Cairo during the Arab Spring to showcase. With youthful hubris she goes straight to the danger. This coming of age film follows her in the years that follow, a period in which the fearless Amal seeks her own identity in a country in transition.
When driving home from southern Tunisia, Fares and Meriem's car is hit by a stray bullet during an ambush by an armed group; their young son Aziz's liver is punctured. At a local hospital, the need for a transplant uncovers a secret that risks Aziz's life should a donor not be found in time. But this is only the beginning of the unexpected twists in a story so deftly crafted that it offers both a probing look at Tunisian society's anchored social and legal realities, and an unshakable need to ask yourself what you would do in the same situation. As their world falls apart, the subtleties of the couple's shifting emotions are handled masterfully, heralding Mehdi Barsaoui as a bold new talent to watch.
Lebanon, July 2006. War is raging between Hezbollah and Israel. During a 24h ceasefire, Marwan heads out in search of his father who refused to leave his Southern village and leaves his wife Rana preparing alone their immigration to Canada. Marwan finds no traces of his father and the ceasefire is quickly broken, forcing him to take shelter in Najib's house, his father's friend. Marwan finds himself trapped under the rain of bombs with Najib and a group of elders, friends of his father. Tension rises inside and outside of the house. Suddenly, a group of Israeli soldiers enter the first floor. The next three days sees the situation spiral out of control.
A portrait of modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the impoverished Sabra and Shatila neighborhoods of the city, the scene of an infamous massacre in 1982.