Maroun Returns to Beirut
Director: Feyrouz Serhal
Duration: 156 minutes
Year: 2024
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis: This year marks the 30th anniversary of Maroun Baghdadi’s sudden and tragic death. Maroun, a Lebanese filmmaker who wrote and directed films during the Lebanese civil war and contributed to documentary and fiction filmmaking from 1973 up until his death in 1993. In this film, the director Feyrouz Serhal embarks on a day trip in Beirut, she navigates the city that profoundly shaped Maroun’s journey in life and cinema, and she encounters close individuals who shared his experiences. And while she traverses Maroun’s life and career, the social and political backdrop moves to the foreground. The film reflects on the last 50 years of the history of the country from a present standpoint. Through Maroun’s story, we perceive how cinema can, beautifully and dramatically, portray our stories and discourses our life events
Mea Culpa
Director: Patrick Tass
Duration: 72 minutes
Year: 2024
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis:
Lies and guilt are at the core of Patrick’s relationship with his mother Randa. Over the years, he collected their audio messages and video calls. He now transforms them into a portrait of her life in Lebanon and his in Belgium. By turns moving, provocative and hilarious, Mea Culpa questions the links between national and sexual identities for a young Palestinian emigrant.
Do You Love Me
Director: Lana Daher
Duration: 75 minutes
Year: 2025
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis:
Do You Love Me is a playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the filmreconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory.
The Third Rahbani
Director: Feyrouz Serhal
Duration: 80 minutes
Year: 2023
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis:
The Third Rahbani chronicles the extraordinary journey of the late Lebanese composer Elias El Rahbani, who carved his own unique path distinct from his renowned brothers, Assi and Mansour. Elias’s innovative compositions and collaborations have left an indelible mark on the Arab music world, cementing his legacy as a visionary artist. It showcases the prominent artists he collaborated with, as well as his contributions to film scores, advertising music, and the composition of partisan anthems.
The documentary also sheds light on the awards and honours Rahbani received throughout his career, from his early beginnings to the later years of his life, emphasizing his artistic legacy that became a milestone in Arab music.
A Sad and Beautiful World
Director: Cyril Aris
Duration: 110 min
Year: 2024
Genre: Drama, Romance
Synopsis:
Set in Beirut, it follows childhood sweethearts Nino (Hasan Akil) and Yasmina (Mounia Akl), who had lost sight of one another, reuniting in their 20s against the backdrop of political turmoil and social collapse in present-day Lebanon
About us
Welcome to the Lebanese Film Festival in Canada, where cinematic brilliance meets cultural exchange.
