A bus full of women on their way to visit their husbands in a remote prison get stranded in the middle of the Lebanese desert. The film follows three women from the group who try to find their way back, both physically and psychologically – each wrestling with a difficult relationship. One is carrying divorce papers, the husband of the other was arrested at their wedding, the third is carrying the pistol of her dominant husband, a prison guard. In the meantime, we hear explosions and, above their head, fighter planes. They pass refugees, deserted cars, empty houses – victims of fighting that is not defined any further. Dima El-Horr is making her directing debut and shows the endless desert landscape in different forms and tints, in which the three women look insignificant. With supple camera work from often surprising angles, El-Horr stresses both the absurdity and the drama of the story, which is spoken sometimes in Arabic and then in French.
Film details
Countries of production
France, Germany, Lebanon
Year
2008
Festival edition
IFFR 2010
Length
87'
Medium/Format
35mm
Language
Arabic, French
Premiere status
None
Director
Dima El-Horr
Producer
Thierry Lenouvel, Hanneke van der Tas, Sabine Sidawi Hamdan
Screenplay
Rabih Mroué, Dima El-Horr
Editing
Jacques Comets
Principal cast
Hiam Abbass
Production company
Ciné-Sud Promotion, NiKo Film, Orjouane Productions