Feature Documentary Film
TOTAL BUDGET
US $136,327
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $75,639
CONTACT
liliane.rahal@gmail.com
+961 3894928
Underdown is a pulsating journey of three unbreakable characters who are struggling under the poverty line in the chaos of Beirut.
In the concrete jungle that is Beirut, people suffer at the hand of what’s dubbed to be the most corrupt government in the Middle East. Decades of wars have left the tiny city with a crumbling infrastructure, inflation, the poverty line is rising and the conflicts in neighboring Syria have forced over 1.5M refugees to flee into the country.
Abu Housam is an elderly Palestinian taxi driver who works and sleeps in his car, drinking araq and cracking witty jokes at the city outside his window. He abandoned his family to live alone knowing they’re better off without him.
Heartbroken from a recent loss of a lover, he struggles to focus on his goal of buying his own car, a shelter for his future.
Eleven-year-old Syrian refugee Ali has chosen to live alone on the streets, calling them his freedom. He loves the sea and his friend Azzam who has gone missing, and is constantly waiting for his return.
The unmarried Lebanese woman Samya lives with her family in a tiny room. Struggling to make ends meet, Samya tries to care for her mother, who is going blind from glaucoma.
Under Beirut's umbrella of corruption and chaos, Underdown follows the three resilient characters on a pulsating journey through their daily struggles living with poverty. Stuck in dark loops of violence, social injustice and alcohol abuse, they connect in their search for hope, freedom and happiness.
I’m not alone when it comes to feeling both love and hate towards Beirut and its beautiful mess. With the current uproar against a corrupt government and a crumbling infrastructure, it becomes difficult to be grateful for what little we may have. Inequality is not a novel in Lebanon, but the number of people living under the poverty line in Lebanon has risen by 66% since the Syrian conflict.
The protagonists in Underdown are living in poverty and are facing conflicts most of us are lucky to never experience. To the outsider, they are pariahs, cast aside as “drunks”, “beggars” or “dirty people”. Overlooked is their resilience, humor and overwhelming hope that drives them forward. Their individual struggles include discrimination, family and identity issues, unemployment, homelessness and alcohol abuse. Capturing the essence of these characters requires trust, respect and honesty. With a sensitive eye level approach and a striking visual language that is inspired by the characters themselves, Underdown explores the similarities of these stories, rooted in Lebanon’s corrupted government and decades of war.
As a Lebanese filmmaker, I believe the amount of stories at our disposal are limitless but stories of hope are essential. The sarcastic humor the Arab region is famous for is not only a way of coping with relentless social realities; humor is also the most relatable way of telling stories that are hard to listen to but need to be heard – and therefore a compelling cinematic strategy of taking back control over our own stories.
There are holes in the streets of Beirut, and I walk by them daily. I lived by the day and accepted the corruption of our country, until I almost fell. My anger and hunger to defy the system kept growing in me. I knew I had to do something or say something. I did not want to find myself at the bottom of the chaos.
After working with Sara on several projects, together we co-directed Bread and Tea, a short documentary that portrays the harsh reality of a Syrian kid living in inhuman conditions in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Our small film won the award for Best Short Documentary at Cinéma Vérité in 2016.
Underdown is an important story to be told through an observational eye, as it introduces 3 protagonists from different nationalities and religions living in modern day Beirut. Despite their difficulties surviving day by day, their faith in themselves is strong. They are independent, self-sufficient and they maintain a dark sense of humor. These are characters who are not depicted on film in this region and having access to them is a responsibility that I am confident my team and I will deliver with respect and honesty.
Teaming up with Ines Meier, our German co-producer whom we’ve met during the selection of our film at the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch 2017, is a great key, as I believe that the story needs a foreign point of view on the Lebanese society and the country as a whole.
2018: Arabs in Space (web series)
2017: Salamat from Germany
2016: Bread and Tea
2015: Damour - Story of a Land