Beirut: Eye of the Storm

Film Program

Beirut: Eye of the Storm

By Mai Masri
In collaboration with Nadi Lekol Nas

Friday 9 June 2023, 19:00 to 21:00
Free entry. Book a spot here

The Sursock Museum and Nadi Lekol Nas are pleased to invite you to the Lebanese premiere of Beirut: Eye of the Storm (2021) in the presence of the filmmaker Mai Masri. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Mai Masri and the participants in the documentary: Lujain Jo and Hanine Rabah. 

Beirut: Eye of the Storm
Dir. Mai Masri, 2021
74’, Lebanon
AR with EN subtitles

Featuring: Noel and Michelle Keserwany, Hanine Rabah, and Lujain Jo
Producers: Mai Masri, Sabine Sidawi, Charlotte Uzu
Camera: Jocelyne Abi Gebrayel, Bassem Fayad, Lujain Jo
Editor: Carine Doumit and Michele Tyan
Music: Fadi Tabbal
Nour Productions, Orjouane Productions, Les Films d’Ici

Four young women artists in Beirut document the October 2019 uprising against corruption and sectarian rule: Journalist Hanine, Iraqi camerawoman Lujain, and Noel and Michelle, two artist sisters whose avant-guard songs have made them a voice for their generation. The prevailing mood is one of hope and change. But a few months later, Covid-19 locks down the city, and all optimism evaporates with the massive explosion at Beirut's port. Will the young women be able to hold onto their dream of a new Lebanon? This personal account of a tumultuous period in Lebanese history explores the role of women, creativity and change.

Mai Masri is a Beirut-based Palestinian filmmaker who studied film at San Francisco State University, USA. Her films were screened worldwide and won over 90 international awards. She reached international acclaim with her debut feature film, 3000 Nights (2015) which was premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and won over 28 international awards. Masri is also known for her human and poetic documentaries: Children of Fire (1990), Hanan Ashrawi: A Woman for Her Time (1995), Children of Shatila (1998), Frontiers of Dreams and Fears (2001), Beirut Diaries (2006), 33 Days (2007) and Beirut: Eye of the Storm (2021). Together with her late husband, Jean Chamoun, Mai founded Nour productions and co-produced several films including, Under the Rubble (1983), Wild Flowers (1986), War Generation – Beirut (1988), Suspended Dreams (1992), In the Shadows of the City (2000), Hostage of Time (1994), Women Beyond Borders (2004), and Lanterns of Memory (2009). 

The screening is part of an ongoing collaboration with Nadi Lekol Nas, started in December 2021, and stemming from a common desire to highlight iconic Arab films belonging to our cinematic heritage and that can be read as essential documents testifying on historical and ongoing struggles.

Nadi Lekol Nas is a 20-year-old non-profit cultural organization whose mission is to safeguard and transmit a range of cinematographic, musical and literary productions documenting Levantine artistic and cultural expressions from the 1930s onwards.

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