Moujarad Raiha

Maher Abi-Samra
Lebanon, France | 2007 | 10 min
Language : English
Subtitle : French

In four long takes, like a haiku in black and white, we enter the rubble of a country following the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese conflict. Without ever looking death in the face, the absence of life shows itself over the course of clues appearing in the no man’s land of a battered Beirut. In silent, frozen time, the film subtly refers to the spectator’s imagination in alluding to death.

In several long takes, like a haiku in black and white, we enter the rubble of a country, Lebanon, after it was ravaged in the war with Israel in 2006. First of all, we get a glimpse of Beirut in the distance, from the sea, like a threatening-looking Fata Morgana. We hear the noise of distant gunfire, suffocated by the void of destruction. Then Maher Abi-Samra’s camera films the ruins inside the city, like a disembowelled body. Ambient noise resonates furiously in our heads, leaving everything we cannot see on screen to our imagination. The audience is plunged into a post-apocalyptic atmosphere reminiscent of science-fiction films. Here though, it is more a question of dealing with a hyper-reality, recorded with great humility and respect.

Without ever looking death in the face, the absence of life shows itself over the course of clues appearing in the no-man’s-land of a battered Beirut. In silent, frozen time, the film subtly refers to the viewer’s imagination in alluding to death.

Jasmin Basic