Phantom Beirut
(Ashbah Beyrouth)
by Ghassan Salhab
Lebanon
Script: Ghassan Salhab
Cinematographer: J. Peyrebrune
Editing: Gladys Joujou, Vincent Commaret
Sound: Patrick Allex
Cast: Aouni Kawas, Darina Al Joundi, Rabih Mroueh, Carol Aboud, Hassan Farhat, Younes Aoude, Ahmed Alizein
Production: Idea Productions, GH Films
Distribution:
Epicentre Films
55 rue de la Mare
75020 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.43.49.03.03
Fax: 0033 1.43.49.03.23
Mail: [email protected]
www.epicentrefilms.com
Year: 1998
35 mm, Colour, 116 min,
OV Arabic with French Subtitles
Towards the end of the nineties, the Lebanese conflict seems to drag on. Khalil, a man in his thirties, come back to Beirut after a long absence. More than ten years ago, during a fight he took advantage of the confusion to fake his own death and disappeared under a false identity…But Beirut is a small city, more and more people recognize him…
"It is in the middle of a truce in Beirut that we meet Hanna, Omar, Fouad, Youssef, Soraya, Ghassan, Kamal, Nada… Indeed a Beirut cut in two but where the simplest behaviours take place: have a drink in a café; take a stroll with the family on the costal road, a walk in the mountains, on the sea side… It is about Beirut, again and again… Beirut seen somehow through the eyes of a stranger, or at least of a former inhabitant coming back from the dead and who is now looking at the city, observing without judgement as it is: amusing, tragic, graceful, crazy, never mind." Ghassam Salhab
