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.
Original Title | Al-wadi - The valley | ||||||||||||
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German Title | Das Tal | ||||||||||||
French Title | La vallée | ||||||||||||
Other Titles | Il valle | ||||||||||||
Directed by | Ghassan Salhab | ||||||||||||
Country | Lebanon | ||||||||||||
Available Formats | DCP | ||||||||||||
Screenplay | Ghassan Salhab | ||||||||||||
Film Editing | Michele Tyan | ||||||||||||
Soundtrack | Cynthia Zaven, Sharif Sehnaoui | ||||||||||||
Cinematography | Bassem Fayad | ||||||||||||
Sound | Karine Bacha, Florent Lavallée | ||||||||||||
Décors | Hussein Baydoun | ||||||||||||
Production | George Schoucair, Abbout Productions | ||||||||||||
Runtime | 134 Min. | ||||||||||||
Language | Arabisch | ||||||||||||
Actors |
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