July Trip

Beirut, July 2006. The Israeli bombings strike Lebanon. Waël Noureddine starts a journey across his country. The film is not a documentary, although the images are burning real, but an essay. The eye of the cameras goes through a country in a state of terror, it records the immediate effects of the war when it touches the civilians. We can almost touch the victims, feel the bombings when they seize, the daily lives of the Lebanese and the silence.

“When the war started I was watching the news in my bed, in Paris. After two days, I flew to Beirut to capture images. I didn’t trust neither televisions, nor filmmakers.[…] The war lasted for more than two decades, and rare are the films that were made. Isn’t it true that cinema can save us? Isn’t it true that a filmmaker should betray the bourgeoisie? Isn’t it true that cinema is – before anything else – art? Isn’t it true that films are made for posterity?”