In July 1982, Beirut, already devastated and divided by nearly seven years of civil war, fell under Israeli siege. Four days earlier, Jocelyne Saab saw her home go up in flames. Faced with a home marked by atrocity and horror, Saab asks: “When did all this begin?”

Through the writing and narration of the Lebanese playwright Roger Assaf, Saab constructs a portrait of Beirut through the memories that haunt its images of destruction. Saab is uncompromising in the images she presents, including footage of reprehensible death and destruction. Yet, she also problematises our reliance on these images, questioning our tendency to remember past acts of violence through their most violent images. Saab argues that we risk repeating the crimes against those who suffered by reducing their experiences solely to images of devastation. Alongside scenes of destruction, Saab layers images of residents who cling to life, who give the city a soul, who have lost so much, and who mourn. To them, every place has become a history, and every name a memory. Through the inclusion of these images, she reminds us as viewers that while we see images of destruction, the residents see the places and people that are no longer there.

Beyrouth, ma ville is screened in a block with two other short films about Lebanon.

Content Warning: The film includes violent depictions of the consequences of war, including footage of mutilated bodies.

LA