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EXCLUSIVE: Mad World, the film sales arm of Cairo-based Mad Solutions, has boarded sales on the Rotterdam-bound anthology of Lebanese short films Home Bitter Home.
The collaborative Lebanese artwork, spearheaded by director Georges Hachem, consists of intimate portraits of five little-known artists in their late thirties, whose personal crises are inextricably linked to the multiple crises of today’s Beirut, the hometown where they evolve, struggling to meet their own needs.
“Home bitter home is a close-up on an all-too-common Lebanese struggle — an overwhelming love for Lebanon and its endearing capital that is married to an unrelenting desire to escape its chaos and start over somewhere more stable. Beirut is the home we fled, but can’t stop missing,” said Hachem, who conceived, developed, and produced the project.
Lebanese-born MAD Solutions co-founder Maher Diab said the work had struck a deep chord with him.
“I’m sure it’ll resonate with many of my countryfolk who find themselves hopelessly in love with a country prone to shocks and stoppages. We are a resilient people, but like everyone else, we have dreams, and chase them we must, wherever that leads us,” he said.
Fellow co-founder Alaa Karkouti added that the work would resonate beyond the Lebanese community.
“The tales it follows remain universal, relatable to many across the Middle East and the world at large. After all, it is an all-too-relatable human experience to miss our homes while in the pursuit of the lives we’ve envisioned for ourselves, and we’re excited to bring it to the world this January as part of the Rotterdam International Film Festival’s Harbor Program,” he said.
Produced by Stray Bee, the anthology is written and directed by Ghina Abboud, Naim El Hajj, Salim Mrad, Aline Ouais, Jihad Saadé, and Marie-Rose Osta; and features the stories of Sara Fakhri, Hadi Deaibes, Adham Al Dimashki, Dana Dia, and Dhana Mkhayel.
It was filmed by Jean Hatem, Elsy Hajjar, Jihad Saadé, and Jocelyne Abi Gebrayel; and edited by Ghina Abboud, Georges Hachem, Naim El Hajj, Sandra Fatte, Jihad Saadé, and Marie-Rose Osta; with sound design handled by Raed Younan, Hadi Deaibes, François Yazbeck, John Paul Jalwan, and Victor Bresse.
Hachem is a Lebanese director and producer who graduated from the Louis Lumière National School in Paris after studying theater at the Lebanese University.
Since 1992, he has directed numerous short films through acting workshops in Paris and Beirut, before returning to Lebanon in 2006 to establish and head the Department of Audiovisual Studies at Antonin University until 2014.
His narrative work includes Evening Mass (2009) and the feature film Stray Bullet (2010), starring Nadine Labaki, which was the winner of the Best Arab Film Award at the Dubai International Film Festival.
In 2016, he released his second feature, Still Burning, shot between Paris and Beirut and starring Wajdi Mouawad, Adila Bendimerad, and Fadi Abi Samra.
His most recent film, Were It Not For Metro (2022), a documentary centered on the performers of a long-running Lebanese cabaret show in Beirut, won the Best Arab Documentary Award at the Malmö Arab Film Festival.
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