Anxious in Beirut (2023)

  • Middle East, Revolution, Society, Youth

DESCRIPTION

In the ever-present desire to capture, record, and understand Beirut, and by extension himself, Zakaria has been trying to give a coherent story to his city.

“Anxious in Beirut” is a personal diary that documents the events of the last two years in Lebanon (revolution, post-war, explosions, demonstrations…). Living with constant anxiety, Zakaria, the film’s young director, narrates his own life, while trying, on numerous occasions, to leave his country.

PRESS

Anxious in Beirut wins Top Doc in Shanghai, 19.6.2023, Business Doc Europe

DIRECTED BY
Zakaria Jaber, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Spain, 2023, 93´ & 52´
Broadcasters & distribution
Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Documentary, Al Jazeera Balkan; Catalonia: SODEPAU, Educational: ADAV
TERRITORIES
Festivals, theatrical, special screenings: Global; TV + VOD: World except of Arabic, English, Turkish and Balkans
Festivals
Ecrans du Reel Beirut Lebanon, International Premiere - Shanghai Film Festival Documentary Competition, North American premiere - Maine IFF, Amman IFF, Festival Internacional de Cine de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Karama Beirut IFF, MEDIMED, Palestine Cinema Days, HRFF Lugano, PerSo FF, Mostra de Cinema Àrab i Mediterrani 2023, JCC Carthage, Film Franco-Arabe de Noisy-le-Sec, GZDOC, Duhok IFF, The Film Tuition International Festival, Karama HRFF, Big Sky IDFF, AFLAM, Ethnocineca, Biarritz FF, Nation Station FF, Arts of Lebanon Festival (ALF), Macao IDFF, Pour la suite du monde, Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, Arlington IFF
Awards
Golden Goblet prize in the documentary competition of Shanghai Film Festival, Special Mention for First-time Editor in the Arab Feature-Length Documentary Competition at Amman IFF, Per So Perugia - Audience Award, Lugano HRFF - Amnesty International Award, Jury Prize - Mostra de Cinema Arab de Catalunia
DIRECTOR BIO

Zakaria Jaber (1994) is a film director, editor and writer. He is self-taught with multiple layers of experiences in the fields of journalism, filmmaking and video editing. In 2018 he managed to produce and direct his first short film independently after years of work in TV production and reporting with various prestigious news outlets in the middle east. In 2019, he took a step forward in “Anxious in Beirut” his first feature documentary and spent three years documenting the lives of his friends, family and the events that happened between the revolution in 2019 reaching the total economic and social collapse in 2022. In 2022 he founded his writing company “Outcast Stories”.

navigate to another film