The Guardian

SÉLIM MOURAD

Film-maker, writer

In late 2021, during a scriptwriting residency in Paris, Sélim Mourad had the idea to shoot a documentary that would encapsulate the feeling of living in Lebanon during these turbulent times. Returning home, he secured some funding and shot the film last November under the working title Jungle Heat.

Chance was at the heart of Mourad’s method. “I would decide the first scene, and whatever interested me there – a character, or something that was said – would lead me to the second scene, and so on.” The shoot, which lasted eight days, was “so blessed. Doors were opened for us. We heard very beautiful stories.” The film is now in post-production. “If one of your readers would like to invest to help us finish the film, it would be great,” he laughs.

Mourad, 35, is a film-making graduate. He had spent the past decade teaching film in Beirut schools and making documentaries and shorts in his spare time, many of them self-funded.

Then, as the pound plummeted, his salary lost most of its value. The port explosion destroyed his flat, forcing him to move in with his parents (he was on the other side of the city at the time of the blast; his cat survived with minor injuries). During the pandemic, he spent a whole academic year teaching online from his parents’ small flat. “I remember crying before opening the meetings,” he says. “It became too much, for a salary that was 5% of what it had been before.” He quit teaching in 2021 and now makes ends meet as a director-for-hire.

When he went to Paris in October 2021, “many friends were telling me: ‘Tear up your passport and stay, don’t ever come back,’” he says. “But my work, my life is in Beirut.”

In spite of all that’s happened, Mourad can imagine brighter times ahead. “Lebanon is passing through a dark night of the soul,” he says, “and I want to be part of the rebirth.”

The Observer

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2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://guardian.pressreader.com/article/281711209037746

Guardian/Observer