Cinema
Phantom Beirut
أشباح بيروت
Ghassan Salhab · 1998
Synopsis
At the end of the 1980s, when the war seems as if it will never end, Khalil, a man in his thirties, returns to Beirut after more than ten years away. He had taken advantage of the confusion of a battle to pass himself off as dead and disappear under a false identity. But Beirut is a small city: those who mourned him recognise him, and everyone wonders whether he fled after stealing the common fund or because of the death of a friend.
Context
Its author wrote the screenplay and co-produced it; it is his first feature film, shot in a style close to documentary. A Lebanese and French co-production, it was presented at the Beirut International Film Festival in 1998. Aouni Kawas plays the role of Khalil, alongside Darina Al Joundi, Rabih Mroué and Carol Abboud. It was released in France on 13 October 1999.
Who it is for
In Arabic, subtitled; a slow film, more attentive to faces and to the city than to the sequence of events.
Prizes and reception
The film that opened the body of work of a filmmaker since praised by several retrospectives, from La Rochelle to Carthage.
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