Hania Mroue, founder and director of Beirut’s beloved Metropolis Cinema — Lebanon‘s only arthouse movie theater — is planning to host the second edition of the South Screens (Écrans du Sud) Film Festival on Thursday evening, just as Israel is stepping up air strikes in Lebanon.
Mroue is forging head despite an airstrike Thursday afternoon on the suburb of Choueifat, close to Beirut’s international airport, the first attack close to the Lebanese capital since May 6.
“An apartment was bombed a few kilometers from the Metropolis, but we are maintaining everything and we are full house,” a rep for the fest informed Variety in a text message.
The festival, scheduled to run May 28-June 6, will kick off with Lebanese director Dima El-Horr’s documentary “And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads,” which depicts the current war-torn reality of Lebanon through the lives of three aging men — Reda, Adel and Qassem — who spend their days on a public beach in Beirut.
The South Screens fest will also feature works by Oliver Laxe — who will be on hand — Saeed Roustaee, Rungano Nyoni, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel and Cherien Dabis.
