Director: Simon El Habre
Screenplay: Simon El Habre
Producers: Simon El Habre, Jad Abi-Khalil, Irit Neidhardt
Participants: Semaan El Habre

Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village of Ain al-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants, who are all from one family, regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset. In his humorous film, Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia.

Simon El Habre

He obtained his diploma in audiovisual directing from Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) and graduated from Femis (Paris) in ‘film and video editing’ in 2000. Since 2001 he is teaching ‘video and visual expression’ as well as ‘film and video editing’ in ALBA. He directed a large number of commercials and TV-reportages and edited award winning short and documentary films.

Selected Festivals & Awards

2009 Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival:Best Documentary
2009 One World Festival, Prag:Special Mention
2009 Expresión en Corto, Meksika:Honorable Mention
2009 Film Festival della Lessinia, İtalya:Honorable Mention
2009 Dokufest, Prizren:Honorable Mention
2008 Dubai Film Festival:Special Jury Prize Documentary

Filmography

2008 The One Man Village
1999 Insa (short)