OCTOPUS

A filmmaker arrives to work on his new film and is faced with a colossal explosion that changes his life and what he can do for himself and his city. Octopus surfaced during trauma, in the aftermath of the cataclysmic Port of Beirut explosion. The film silently navigates that unfolding, giving space to the myriad of existential questions birthed by the enormity of the happening. Questions of unexamined worldviews, of suffering and meaning, of collective purpose, and of many other quiet thoughts strewn amidst the rubble. What are we saying when we say nothing at all?

“Beirut, a city experiencing political and economic turmoil is the place in which opportunity, revenge, hope and despair all co-exist. Its people have recently undergone the third largest explosion in history, amongst other pressures from foreign countries and corruption from within. The country at large is somewhat analogous to an inflated balloon that reaches its limit, pops, and strangely inflates back again to become larger every time to blow up once more. There are rarely words left to define that magnitude of the unfolding, so we have to resort to metaphors that don’t even remotely come close to actuality. The narrative has become so deeply entrenched in fictional constructs and abstractions by way of cultural paradigms that are evidently pernicious. All we have to do is look around, to realize the threats to our species that we are shaping. The cause is no longer a concern, but the temporary repairs instead. No matter what transpires, the main questions remain as to who we are and what we are doing here. The inescapable mystery we are enveloped in, is perhaps what keeps us going regardless of the suffering that comes with it.”