Tales of the Wounded Land

In October 2023, when Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon, many expected a brief conflict. Instead the assault stretched on over fifteen months, nearly erasing several border villages. Against this backdrop and through his handheld camera, Abbas Fahdel’s intimate yet collective chronicle follows his family and the people he meets in a land scarred by destruction. Guided by Nour, the director’s wife and co-producer, and their little daughter Camelia, the film unfolds in fragmentary chapters framed by vivid, poetic reflections. Under the weight of military violence, ordinary life becomes a political statement. Death is never shown directly, but its presence is everywhere—in the gaze of survivors, dignified testimonies and the determination to rebuild lives, homes and memories. Amid the debris, one man mourns a library he assembled over sixty years, another cares for abandoned animals, a third wonders why his amusement park was destroyed. Only in the funeral sequences which open and close the film does the camera take flight. From this perspective, the long procession of coffins and mourners crossing the village overwhelms us with an ineffable grief, one that belongs to us all. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

In the presence of Abbas Fahdel und Nour Ballouk.

Abbas Fahdel: BACK TO BABYLON (2002, K), WE IRAQIS (2004, K), DAWN OF THE WORLD (2008), HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO (2015), YARA (2018), BITTER BREAD (2019), TALES OF THE PURPLE HOUSE (2022)