Among these are the following:ĭocumentaries in competition include a single entry in the Muhr Emirati category, Nujoom Alghanem’s HONEY, RAIN & DUST (pictured), about three individuals involved with apiary and honey collection as well as several in the Muhr Feature section, such as: Laurent Aït Benalla’s TERRA FIRMA, a study of a French harbor and its traffic with north Africa and the Middle East Mohamed Rashad’s LITTLE EAGLES, in which the Egyptian filmmaker explores 1970s political activism while contemplating his career Iman Kamel’s EGYPTIAN JEANNE D’ARC, an experimental meditation on present-day Egyptian women’s lives Eliane Raheb’s THOSE WHO REMAIN, a portrait of a Christian Lebanese farmer and restaurateur Hady Zaccak’s 104 WRINKLES, about the filmmaker’s centenarian grandmother and Alfoz Tanjour’s A MEMORY IN KHAKI, which shares story of refugees from Syrian repression. The Gulf State event ups its nonfiction offerings this year slightly, presenting 23 documentary features compared to last year’s slim 17. The 4th BBC Arab Festival runs from Friday 20 April until Thursday 26 April and is free, apply for tickets.The 13th Dubai International Film Festival begins today, Wednesday, December 7, and runs through next Wednesday, December 14. Those Who Remain’s UK premiere is on Monday 23 April, 7.30pm + Dir Q&A. We often wonder about those who remain and, now you will get to hear why and how they live.
Put simply, everything in modern day Lebanon is a struggle especially for the minorities that live there. Haykal’s story, especially watching him carry rocks to build his house, is also a metaphor of what Lebanon has become sectarian disputes, minorities trying to survive in a hostile environment, people fighting over land that no one actually has a lawful claim over. Here is a man who laments for the past but is keenly aware of how he lives now. It is both a poignant and powerful documentary. It’s as if in speaking about the terrorists in Syria gives them undue importance. When she mentions the terrorists in Syria to the sister of the Muslim women who works in Haykal’s restaurant, she replies let’s talk about people that actually matter. She isn’t just happy to accept what she is told and so Those Who Remain takes on wider issues without engulfing or diverting from the central subject matter, Haykal. Haykal is thoughtful, kind and solid and not only does he get to tell his story he also chooses the title.Įliane’s documentary style is sensitive but also investigative. He never seeks pity and neither is he verbose. His wife left because she didn’t share his resilience. Although, arguably he has lost two of the most important things in his life already: his wife and children. However, the counter-argument is examined in Those Who Remain, why should he leave and give up everything.
Part of you cannot help but wonder whilst watching this documentary why a man clearly highly educated didn’t just leave Lebanon. Those Who Remain is all the more powerful because it allows us to see, hear and feel what Haykal experiences not just whilst he is being filmed but, through his words, we can imagine what his life was like before. Those Who Remain tells the story of a Maronite Christian farmer, Haykal Mikhael, based in Akkar, Northern Lebanon, who struggles to build his family home whilst also dealing with sectarian Lebanese tensions and the constant threat of the war in Syria escalating and spreading to Lebanon.Īs with most of the programming of the BBC Arab Festival, we get to hear the voices of those who are living through the wars and conflicts, in their own words. This is a documentary from esteemed, Lebanese female documentary maker Eliane Raheb. The fourth BBC Arab Festival will see the UK premiere of Those Who Remain.
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