From the makers of GAZA (Sundance 2019), comes a new cinematic odyssey that
penetrates deep below the surface of Beirut, a still beautiful, yet deeply
troubled city on the brink of financial collapse.
In Sabra, one of Beirut’s toughest urban slums, sectarianism and violence is a
permanent way of life. Rabia, a 38-year-old hardworking but undocumented
Lebanese mother cannot afford to admit her chronically ill daughter to hospital,
leaving the life of her innocent child hanging in the balance.
In the Shadow of Beirut weaves four compelling storylines together in a searing
portrait of a people and a city struggling to survive amidst some of the most
difficult living conditions imaginable. In this failing state, it is the
vulnerable who suffer most.
Through intimate, character driven and cinematic storytelling, the stark reality
of life for the protagonists of the film is symbolic of the hundreds of
thousands of others who fight for survival in the most diverse country in the
Middle East, which has the highest per capita refugee numbers in the world. This
is a nation suffering one of the worst global financial meltdowns on record, a
country and a city that many now are trying desperately to flee.
Despite the inhumane conditions and enormous challenges, the areas’ inhabitants
possess unfathomable reserves of resilience and even hope, as they go about
their daily lives in the struggle to forge a brighter future for their families.
