Feature Documentary Film
TOTAL BUDGET
US $125,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $95,000
CONTACT
crystalfbis@gmail.com
+9613695988
A man swings between extremes, trying to reconcile opposing forces within him, torn between the duty to piousness and the temptation of hedonism. On one hand, there is a worried mother and an expecting wife; on the other, a world of war, addiction and prison.
Ibrahim, a 28-year-old resident of the violence-ridden neighborhood of Bab Al-Tabbaneh in Northern Lebanon, is a man apart. Struggling to carve a steady, healthy direction in his desolate environment, he bounces from job to job, and from subculture to subculture, looking for a ray of light that can help guide his way out of the darkness.
But then, light breaks through. A sliver of hope seeps into Ibrahim’s life when he meets Mahasin, a woman who represents his often-smothered desire to lead a righteous life. She represents perhaps his only viable path to redemption, the only way out of the deadend world that his environment has offered him. And for a short time, Ibrahim is well on that path; Mahasin becomes pregnant with his child, and Ibrahim now has to face the reality that he will eventually become a father.
Soon, the pressure and the reality of his new responsibilities begin to take their toll on Ibrahim. Mahasin dreams of a wedding, and Ibrahim would lift the world for her. But the financial weights rupture his newfound peace.
The old temptations return, and once again, Ibrahim finds himself plunged back into the world he tried so desperately to escape. He disappears, he drinks, he cuts himself to run from his fear of his future, and what he perceives to be his inevitable failure. As he falls deeper and deeper into an ocean of desperation, he watches, as the bonds to his salvation become thinner and thinner, closer and closer to shattering completely.
Ibrahim responds to the worlds within him all at once, the world of the past, the present and the future; he participates in telling his story, and eventually begins to portray the landscape and political economy of this neighborhood. Ibrahim’s story is not unique; he is not an exception but rather another face in a vast sea of people living in a marginalized community on the Lebanese border.
Like Ibrahim’s internal struggle, the film’s visual style also is permeated with a tension between opposing forces. The camera is torn between modes of observational objectivity, which follows and listens to its subjects like an intrigued visitor. It is these sets of tensions—observational versus poetic, interiority versus exteriority— that play and speak to the tensions and polarities that govern Ibrahim’s actual life. This way, the style of the film, divided and undecided, reflects Ibrahim’s own sense of being torn. And in the middle of these sets of tensions, sits Ibrahim. The film’s own shattered ground becomes the soil of his anxieties.
Crystal Films is a film production company that has been focusing, for many years, on social injustice and humanitarian issues. Ours is an urgent social-political story, which highlights unconventional character-driven life.
We believe that artful storytelling and strong artistic vision can have a powerful impact on cultures, and change societies’ viewpoints. Remi Itani, our director, has been following Ibrahim’s life in his surroundings since 2014, and this way of approaching the reality of her protagonist made a big difference in the storytelling process. It presents an original, different and authentic style of filming misery, violence and silence. As a company, by getting involved in such a challenging film, we commit to the opportunity of achieving lasting changes, by reaching vast audiences worldwide.
2008: Hadewijch
2007: Khalass
2005: Maid for Sale