Mohamed Sabbah
Directing
Biography
Beirut based director Mohamad Moe Sabbah studied filmmaking at the ALBA institute, where he received a BA in 2011 and an MA in 2014. His short films got international attention, with The Return he was invited to the Short Film Corner in Cannes in 2012. In the winter semester 2015/16 Sabbah was a guest of the International Class (ICLA) of the Film Academy Ludwigsburg in Germany to work on the script development for his first feature length film, Chronic. Mohamad Sabbah has also been working as assistant director and director on TV commercials, campaigns and music videos. His 2017 music video of Zahzah X Khansa’s adaption of Mohammad Abdel Wahab’s 1929 Khayef rose wide attention.
Known For
Omar, a photographer, has a special experience with death. He is trying to express it through a new project. One day, three photo sessions and witnesses. Between the walls of a studio, one photographer and three people meet up after a casting. Bodies express stories of sex, love and trauma in the city of Beirut.
Chronic
Recently I had a dream... I dreamt that I was a martyr.
There
The Land documents the uprising of the people of Bisri and activists from all of Lebanon against the construction of the dangerous dam leading up to the Bisri Valley's liberation. Farmers and shepherds discuss their fears of losing the land and their intimate relationship with it. It also presents the project's seismic and geological dangers, its futility, the conflicts of interest surrounding its construction, and its destruction of a rich and significant area in every respect.
The Land
A Beirut rooftop conversation about living with Sexually Transmitted Infections opens into a cinematic dialogue, as Danielle and Moe draw raw and vibrant images from their personal experiences. Danielle filmed herself in sober and melancholic images to grasp what is going on, while Moe plays with memories and sensations of a queer body “invaded” by a virus. While they engage with five actresses and actors to embody the testimonies of individuals who also lived with STIs, “forbidden” stories begin to exist and enter a collaborative exploration of intimacy, bodies, stigma and shame.
Embodied Chorus
In the northern mountains of Lebanon, a Syrian man hoping to reunite with family torn apart by war encounters two Palestinian children whose own stories of exile provide a glimpse into the uncertainties he must face as a refugee.