In short, in “Beirut Holdem”, which will be presented next Thursday in the halls, we follow the story of Zico (Saleh Bakri) and his childhood friends in Beirut’s popular neighborhoods. A man in his forties has just been released from prison, trying to rebuild his life and win back his girlfriend Carol (Rana Alamuddin) after he goes broke and loses his brother in a racing accident. Without revealing the details, Zico will face a series of inevitable disappointments and tragedies in light of the bleakness that surrounds his living conditions in Beirut. However, the film is not 100 percent dark. In this regard, Kammoun comments in an interview with us: “The society in which we live is made of contradictions and life also. So no day is like another, just as no one’s destiny and the fate of any other is alike. We ask ourselves the question whether life is worth living. In the end it is daily life and continuity. A glimmer of hope and a smile are what give life meaning and make us feel like it’s worth living in general, and that doesn’t just involve the characters in the movie. It is the result of my observation. I observe our society and then reflect it as I see it in my films. When I write work, I do it as I see and feel things without effort. Our lives are made of these contradictions. We laugh at the drama and our problems.”
On the other hand, Kammoun admits that the film often comes from his obsession: “Revelation is always a mixture of things. Ideas come up every day. But for an idea to turn into a movie, we need a huge passion and obsession to keep going. We are not in a country where film production is plentiful and we have the luxury of making a film every six months. The filmmaker has to be willing enough to make the film here. The mixture of desires and obsessions made me transform “Beirut Holdem” from an idea into ideas and then into a movie. I think I act on the impressions I get of things, mixing obsessions and ideas and making them mingle.”
Kammoun finished “Beirut Holdem” in 2019 before the economic crisis, but what happened in succession from the outbreak of Covid-19 and the financial crisis prevented the film from being released until this year. Note that it was shown at the “Red Sea Festival” in Saudi Arabia last December. Beirut is present with its daily details, streets and dangers in the film, and the difficulties experienced by its heroes are fully applicable to the feelings of the majority of its residents today, in light of the most severe crisis that they face. The director says that the film was finished before the crisis, adding: “What we see in it and feel the crisis is filmed before. It is the result of observation, imagination and feeling, more like an organic thing. Everything you photograph is linked together. Since the short film “Shadow” which she released in 1994 as an extension of “Falafel” until today, I have always relied on observation and feelings trying to express them as I know.”
The film takes its title from the famous game, in clear reference to the transformation of life in Beirut into a gambling game, as well as the lives of Zico and his friends in this city, which hides for them every day something new and other challenges that may be more difficult than before. On this, Kammoun comments: “This is what necessitates us to get things done quickly because we do not know what the next moments have in store for us. Our lives turn into a gamble. We live the moment of drama to the maximum as we do with moments of happiness as well. If a person loves, he must take the adventure to the end, whatever the outcome, whether it is destruction or joy, and the same if he hates it. I know these things because I live them. This is the heart of the film.
Stages and rituals express the passage of time in cinema
Religious symbols and rituals have their place in the film, from church marriages to baptisms and burials. Cummins likes to finally clarify the social context in which his characters from somewhere live: “Zico belongs to this category. I don’t like movies where we don’t know where the person belongs. I’m not talking about religion here, but I want to show where it comes from. The characters we don’t know where they come from, we feel as if they are without a hand, a foot, or a face, as well as the way I use these rituals in life stages. Are stations in the narrative and several layers. Stages and rituals express the passage of time in cinema in an attempt to reflect the passage of time in life.
* “Beirut Holdem” in the halls starting from Thursday