Post-war Beirut Festival welcomes 40 international guests.
Screendaily.com, 28 September 2006
Antonia Carver

Ayam Beirut Al Cinema'iya, the first festival to take place in Lebanon since the war, wrapped Sept 23 after a nine-day festival that opened with the world premiere of Michel Kammoun’s Falafel, and screened 40 features, shorts and documentaries, mainly from or about the Arab world.

Now in its fourth year, the festival has gained a following among Arab cinephiles, thanks in part to its grassroots approach and support for regional cinema. This year, even though Beirut’s airport is still not fully functional, 40 foreign guests made the trip. Unifrance’s director of festivals Antoine Khalife, representatives from Arte, and
journalists from Germany and France joined film directors James Longley, Ismael Ferroukhi and Egyptian actress Layla Alwi, among others.

“Most of the guests brought cameras with them, and some are considering making films about the situation,” said artistic director Eliane Raheb. Palestinian-UK filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky (I See the Stars at Noon), for example, is using the festival as a starting point for a documentary on the “cultural reconstruction of Beirut”.

In between screenings, some of the guests attended Hezbollah’s victory celebrations in southern Beirut. One of the most popular festival events was the screening of a collection of short films and videos made during the recent war. “It was a very sensitive issue, and we debated whether to do it,” said Raheb. “But on the day, we
had almost 500 people crowd into a 275-seat theatre.” A debate about “the role of the filmmaker in a time of crisis” followed the films.

Festivals in the Arab world and Europe have since expressed interest in continuing the programme. “The festival itself was extremely well-organized and surprisingly well-attended,” said Longley, who directed Iraq In Fragments. “As you might expect, the audiences were very engaged and there was a huge spectrum of political and aesthetic ideas represented -- that makes it an exciting place to show a film.”

Many of the screenings took place in the Metropolis, one of a handful of arthouse cinemas in the Middle East, which opened on July 11, a day before the war started, and hosted refugees throughout the crisis. Festival director and Metropolis founder Hania Mroue entertained the homeless families from southern Beirut with daily screenings from the archives. The cinema relaunches next week and hopes to be an outlet for independent film in the country, an approach endorsed by Khalife: “I am in discussions with the cinema -- the association between Beirut DC and the Metropolis will be very good for realising European and Arab films in Lebanon.”

Run by film-makers’ cooperative Beirut DC, Ayam Beirut Al Cinema'iya (Beirut Cinema Days) started as a forum for regional cinema, but expanded into more international fare during 2004 and 2005 when the more established Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) suffered consecutive cancellations. This year the BIFF returns as the MidEast Film Festival, Oct 4-10, with a programme of 20 international festival favourites, including Pedro Almodovar’s Volver, Jafar Panahi’s Offside, and Stephen Frears’ The Queen. The festival closes with Marwan Hamed’s The Yacoubian Building.

Festival director Colette Naufal said that prints are coming in but organising the event is “very tough” given local circumstances. “Industry representatives from Europe and the US think three times before going to Beirut,” she said. Nonetheless, Naufal is expecting guests, including Venice festival director Marco Mueller, who helped launch the festival, along with the Make Films Not War campaign.

Beirut has further events planned for local and regional cinema: documentary festival Docudays is scheduled for Nov 3-11; local independent film and video festival Ne a Beyrouth, which was due to take place in August, has now shifted to early December.


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