Were all the candidatesmin faces posted on the walls of Lebanon during the parliamentary campaign of 2000 waiting for the results of the elections? No. As faces, they were waiting to be saved. Far better than any surgical face-lift or digital retouching, it was the physical removal of part of the poster of the face of one candidate so that the face of another candidate would partially appear under it; as well as the accretions of posters and photographs over each other that produced the most effective face-lift, and that proved a successful face-saver for all concerned. We have in these resultant recombinant posters one of the sites where Lebanese culture in specific, and Arabic culture in general, mired in an organic view of the body, in an organic body, exposes itself to inorganic bodies.

The One Man Village (Semaan bil-Day'ia) A film that goes under the skin. (Al-Mustaqbal, Reema Mismar) Thrilling, painful, mature and very well done. It announces the birth of real cinematographer, who combines courage and talent. A film that has no place for hatred. (Al-Akhbar, Pierre Abi Saab) Short Synopsis Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants which are all from one family regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset. In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war. Long Synopsis The One Man Village follows live in the Christian village Aïn el-Halazoun in the Lebanese Mountains that was emptied in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. 1983 the region of the Mount Lebanon, one hour away from the capital Beirut, faced merciless fighting between Christian and Druze militias which ended in reprisals in the form of civilian massacres and the displacement of populations. The Christian inhabitants of Mount Lebanon had to seek refuge in Beirut. Entire villages, including Aïn el-Halazoun, were evacuated and destroyed. Reconciliation was officially declared in 1994 and Christians were allowed to return to their villages. Thirteen years later, Aïn El Halazoun is still a ghost village. Its inhabitants decided to stay in Beirut in spite of the difficult living conditions there. They go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses regularly and always leave before sunset. Only one man decided to return to Aïn el-Halazoun for good: Semaan El Habre. Over the period of year Simon El Habre returned to his village with his film team to observe the daily routine in Aïn el-Halazoun. His portrait of life in a quasi ghost village reflects the collective and individual memory. It calls into question formal reconciliations. Yet, through the story of Semaan el-Habre who decided to return home against all odds it is also, and above all, the story of a healing. Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008, 86 min, color, HDCAM, Arabic with English subtitles Director Simon El Habre | Writer Simon El Habre | Cinematography Bassem Fayad, Marc Karam | Sound Chadi Roukoz | Cast Semaan El Habre | Editing Simon El Habre | Sound Editing/ Mixing Emile Aouad | Producers Simon El Habre, Jad Abi-Khalil, Irit Neidhardt | Produced by Beirut DC in association with mec film

The film tells of the lives of four young men in a refugee camp who dream of inviting Rogers Waters (Pink Floyd) to give a concert in their camp, thus giving us an insight into the lives of these young men, their struggles and the daily hardships they face in order to survive.

An intimate dialogue with Soha Bechara, ex-Lebanese National Resistance fighter, in her Paris dorm room. The interview was taped during the last year of the Israeli occupation, one year after her release from captivity in El-Khiam torture and interrogation center (South Lebanon) where she had been detained for 10 years—six in isolation. Revising notions of resistance, survival, and will, the overexposed image of the survivor speaks quietly and directly to the camera—not speaking of the torture, but of separation amd loss; of what is left behind and what remains.