Synopsis
The work is about the ruination of film heritage in Lebanon navigated through the country's cinematic heydays of the late 60s and early 70s - a period that witnessed a rise of Egyptian producers and directors moving to Lebanon to make films partly due to Nasser's nationalization of the Egyptian cinema.The film features : Alexandre Paulikevitch (dancer) and Fredrika Brillembourg (soprano singing in Lebanese Arabic). Filmed between Beirut, Tripoli, Baalbeck, Casablanca and Los Angeles...
Eng. Fr. Ar. language with Eng. subtitles
Background:
The story of this film project evolves around the biggest production studio in the Arab world, and its lost archive. Located on Charles Helou Boulevard in the East of Beirut, the remains of Studio Baalbek, a white villa with open doors, broken windows and a garden full of wild plants and pine trees, appear like a lifeless place. But even if this biggest production studio in the Arab region initiated in 1962 had fallen victim to the Lebanese civil war (1975 to 1990), it has nevertheless left behind a treasure of an archive of voice recordings and films that still are famous throughout the entire Arab world, spanning productions from Erbil to Amman, and from Damascus to Cairo. Negligence by the Lebanese authorities has led to mold growing on parts of this archive inside the damp underground warehouses.