Cinema
Where To?
إلى أين؟
Georges Nasser · 1957
Synopsis
In a village in the Lebanese mountains, a family lives in poverty. The father abandons his wife and children to leave for Brazil, which many then regard as an El Dorado. Twenty years later, the mother has raised her sons alone: the elder has started his own family, the younger is preparing to emigrate in his turn. It is then that an old man in rags arrives in the village.
Context
It is the first feature film by its author, and the first Lebanese film selected in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it competes in 1957; it is also the first film from the country shown abroad. The filmmaker's second feature, Le Petit Étranger, will be selected at Cannes in 1962. For the film's sixtieth anniversary, Abbout Productions and the Fondation Liban Cinéma had the negative restored; the restored print was presented at Cannes Classics in 2017, then in Beirut in January 2018.
Who it is for
In Arabic, subtitled; it is seen today in its restored copy, which circulates in festivals and film archives.
Prizes and reception
In competition for the Palme d'Or in 1957; its themes of exile and emigration remain relevant in Lebanon.
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