Focus: Lebanon

Lebanon has been known as the country of diversity. Throughout history, Lebanese people have found it hard to agree on one pact that will allow all this social, religious, economic and cultural multiplicity to live in harmony. If we would come to describe Lebanon, we would settle on it being the country of “opposites”. Now, trying to frame the Lebanese culture or define its identity would seem like an unreasonable task. For example; it is a very liberal society but conservative. We adapt Western ideologies but we are so attached to our Eastern traditions. We are so bowed to our past but we never learn from it and we keep on repeating the same mistakes that disturb our present. We have always lived in between and so is our identity, lost in between. The film lineup of the three below programs is nothing but a mirror effect of this culture that has been always in pursuit for its self.

 

 

Curator: Nicolas Khabbaz, NDU International Film Festival

 

Nicolas Khabbaz was born in Lebanon. He graduated in filmmaking, and holds a Ph.D. in cinema where he studied the cinema of small nations and the question of its identity. He has become the program director of the NDU International Film Festival and the Batroun Mediterranean Film Festival. Since 2012, he has been Director of the Audiovisual Arts Department at NDU. Between 2005 and 2020 he has produced 16 theatre plays, written and directed by Georges Khabbaz, with whom he co- founded KAY Production. Khabbaz has participated in several international festivals around the world as a filmmaker, jury member and curator. He has produced several award-winning short films. His film ON THE ROPES (2016, director: Manon Nammour), premiered in Locarno film festival. BARAKAT (2019, also by Nammour) premiered in Toronto International Film Festival.

 

 

 

SHE LEADS: Against the Current

The group of films in this program is written and directed by female filmmakers and feature, mostly, a female character that lead the story. It reflects the common concerns and the collective rage of their rebellious makers.

 

Submarine / Lebanon 2016. Fiction. 20’. Director: Mounia Akl

In White / Lebanon 2016. Fiction. 15’. Director: Dania Bdeir

On the Ropes / Lebanon 2016. Fiction. 17’. Director: Manon Nammour

Disruption / Lebanon 2017. Fiction. 26’. Director: Feyrouz Serhal

The Shield that I Carry / Lebanon 2017. Documentary. 19’. Director: Basma Farhat Kino Muza / Sala 1 / 18.03.2020 / 18:15 / 90’

 

Kino Muza / Sala 1 / 22.03.2020 / 18:15 / 90’

 

THE SURREAL REALITY

This program reflects the absurdity of the daily life in Lebanon. It exposes the fragility and
inability of the dominated social and political order.

 

Streets of Death / Lebanon 2017. Documentary. 22’.Director: Karam Ghossein

Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow / Lebanon 2017. Fiction. 29’.Director: Fadi Baki

White Noise / Lebanon 2017. Fiction. 21’. Directors: Ahmad Ghossein, Lucie La Chimia

Ostrich Politics / Lebanon 2018. Animation. 6’. Director: Mohammad Houhou

 

Kino Muza / Sala 1 / 19.03.2020 / 18:15 / 90’

 

THE NEIGHBOR IS A THREAT

Boarders, Refugees, and the intervention of the neighboring countries in the general state security. This program is more like a geographical and cultural positioning of Lebanon and the conception of otherness whether a foreign or a fellow Lebanese other.

 

Salamat From Germany / Lebanon 2017. Fiction. 20’. Directors: Una Gunjak, Rami Kodeih

Contact /Lebanon 2019. Fiction. 22’. Director: Samir Syriani

The Rifle, the Jackal,  the Wolf and the Boy / Lebanon 2016. Fiction. 19’. Director: Oualid Mouaness

Heart of the Sky / Lebanon 2018. Documentary / music video. 15′. Director: Jessy Moussallem

President’s Visit / Lebanon 2017. Fiction. 19’. Director: Cyril Aris

 

Kino Muza / Sala 1 / 21.03.2020 / 19:00 / 90’

Podczas pokazu we współpracy z KASKcinema w Gent 30 kwietnia 2025 r. zaprezentujemy program RAW, którego kuratorem jest Wout Biesmans. Program powstał na bazie konkursu, który swoją pierwszą odsłonę miał podczas festiwalu Short Waves 2023 roku. RAW został stworzony, aby zapewnić większą widoczność produkcjom, które często znajdują się poza kanonem klasycznych festiwali filmowych ze względu na swoją unikatową sygnaturę. Program ten jest odpowiedzią na szerszą dyskusję na temat tego, kto kształtuje promocję kultury i kto definiuje granice między kinem a sztuką medialną.
RAW oznacza refleksję, przygodę i badania. Spodziewaj się połączenia animacji, multimediów i filmu autorskiego, który stoi na przecięciu kina i eksperymentu. W menu: filmowanie tygrysa tasmańskiego, filmowiec z obsesją na punkcie ping ponga, dwie cyberprzestrzenie – jedna z nich pokazuje delfina w wolnym związku z piętnastoma nadmuchiwanymi zwierzętami, haiku, opowieść o duchach i młodym człowieku, który marzy o tym, by pewnego dnia móc latać.

Po pokazie przygotowanym we współpracy z KASKcinema odbędzie się Q&A z Lucie Grannec i Spencerem Jamesem Bogaertem. 

  • We All Want a Place to Call Our Own / reż. Daniela Delgado Viteri / Ecuador / 2022 / 13’
  • For Mouna / reż. Spencer James Bogaert / Belgium / 2022 / 14’
  • Furrie / reż. Lucie Grannec / France / 2022 / 9’ 
  • Mars / reż. Yann les Jours / France / 2023 / 1’ 
  • Elantra is almost a life / reż. Maja Skjøth Hegelund / United States / 2023 / 7’
  • Di Visi di Pietra Memoria / reż. Andrea Bordoli / Switzerland / 2022 / 9’
  • Enflightenment / reż. Wey Yinn Teo / Malaysia / 2023 / 11’ 

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