Posted in: 31/05/2022 – 17:14
Beirut (AFP) – Life returns to the Lebanese film festivals through the “Beirut Film Days”, which will be held next June, in which various Lebanese and Arab works will be shown.
The Beirut DC Association, which organizes the festival, said in a statement that it “returns to the forefront with the 11th Beirut Film Days Festival, which will be held between June 10-19, 2022 (…) following an absence from cinemas for three years, and despite One of the conditions currently afflicting Lebanon.
Noting that the films will be free to attend, she stated that the works will be shown once more outside the capital, in halls spread over several regions in southern, north and east Lebanon.
The association explained that “the festival abounds with a diverse program that includes recent films and others dealing with the past.”
The artistic director of the festival, Reham Assi, told AFP that the Lebanese films shown do not deal with the developments of the last three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the explosion of the Port of Beirut, the 2019 protest demonstrations, or the economic and social crisis, but rather “deal with what the Lebanese have lived through during the last two decades,” which constitutes recent events. an extension of it.
The festival dedicated one of its categories under the title “Beirut DC Orbit” to show “a variety of films that were accompanied by the association” on its journey through the various stages of production”, and “today it has won awards and is rewarded in the most prestigious film festivals.”
This category includes three films, including the Jordanian “Joy”, with which the festival opens, in the presence of its director, Darren J. Hello. This film recently won the Jury Prize at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden.
This category also includes the documentary “The Zaatari Captains” by Egyptian director Ali El-Araby, who previously participated in the Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.
As for the closing of “Beirut Cinema Days”, it will be with “The Sea Before You” by Lebanese director Elie Dagher. This feature film was previously shown as part of the “Directors’ Weeks” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.
The festival program includes a category entitled “I am a Hoyt” that includes other Arab films, while the category “This Place” is devoted to showing “old and new films.”
While competing in the festival’s competition, a group of short films, mostly by Lebanese directors, “the main theme is the relationship of people to the space they occupy”, screenings of other short films by Arab directors, most of them Egyptians.
The performances are accompanied by other activities, including discussions, an exhibition that relives the past in downtown Beirut between 1935 and 1975, and a concert featuring selections from the classical Egyptian song performed by actresses and singers Kali Murad, Hoda Sultan, Sabah, Shadia and Souad Hosni, in musical films that were shown between 1935. and 1972.
The resumption of the Beirut Film Days Festival dedicates the return to life of cultural activities in Lebanon, following a pause caused by the intersection of the Covid-19 pandemic with a very severe economic crisis and the horrific explosion that shook the city in August 2020.
© 2022 AFP