Mazen Khaled

A young man's tragic death at Beirut's seaside causes his friends to grapple with loss and to partake in his community's rites and ceremonies, exposing the city's schisms and its society's fault lines

Following in the Extra Terrestrial's footsteps, the QT wants to go home. 'My Queer Samsara is a critical look at a constructed social identity that hides underneath it a gnawing want; a need to 'go back home' and be fully accepted into the bosom of our very first loves, the ones who were supposed to take care of us, our families.'

Beirut, summer, 2012: Life here seems as normal as this city can provide. Something is bubbling underneath, though. As people go about their normal lives, a young man gets chased around the streets of the eclectic Hamra district. Meanwhile, a suspicious-looking bag easily changes hands, and heads to an unknown destination around a busy cafe.

Cadillac Blues is the story of three days in the life of two Lebanese brothers, Omar and Ryan. They are very close. They live together, sharing the living space, the mobile phone, and a huge old Cadillac. We don’t know where their parents are. But they are present only in the boys’ conversations. Through a series of dreams and hallucinations, we get a glimpse into Ryan’s mental state before his brother does. We are given the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a young man struggling with his sexuality in the stuffy environment of the margins. He is down with the Cadillac blues.