Al-wadi - The valley

Wandering aimlessly after losing his memory in a car accident, a man
is taken in by the inhabitants of a farm in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon,
whose secret business is the drugs they manufacture in a laboratory on
the closely guarded property. The presence of this nameless stranger
has consequences for the clandestine community.
Little separates beauty and horror here. A latent sense of danger
pervades the vast swathes of sublime landscape. A catastrophe looms.
Tensions also rise in the cramped quarters of the house. The identity
of the man without a past becomes an increasing issue as doubts
regarding his amnesia rear their head. Is he a doctor or a mechanic?
An angel or a spy? Like a blank page, he lends himself to fantasies
of all kinds and ultimately becomes a prisoner. At once concrete
and otherworldly, with a powerful soundtrack and images of great
intensity, the film shows a set of melancholy existences on the eve
of the apocalypse. Alongside radio news reports on current political
crises, it leaves ample room for poetry, painting and a love song, and
thus questions the status of art in times of terror and war, that is, in
the here and now.