- 10
- Jan.
- 2025
The Arab Innovation Festival, held as part of the feature film competition in Cairo, awarded the Best Director prize to Hady Zaccak for his film Cilama, proudly representing Lebanon. Cilama will be screening at Metropolis Cinema on January 14 at 7 PM as part of Doc Screens – Écrans du Réel.
It comes as no surprise that Hady Zaccak won the Best Director prize at the first edition of the Arab Innovation Festival, held during the feature film competition in Cairo, Egypt. The director is renowned for earning numerous international accolades for his meticulously crafted and deeply focused documentaries. This award reflects the filmmaker's growing and enduring international recognition.
Through 1,000 images and 40 voices, Cilama brings to life the collective memory of Tripoli and its unique relationship with “Cilama,” the local term for cinema. Step into a world of love, war, beginnings and endings, where the silver screen serves as a timeless witness to the city's history and spirit.
The intimate stories within the grand narrative of people and places are what shape Hady Zaccak’s films. However, his two latest works, Ya Omri (2017) and Cilama (2024), stand out for their particularly poetic touch, which was only subtly present in his earlier pieces. They delve deeper into the essence and soul of their subjects, serving as profound unveilings. Ya Omri highlights the poetic, the sensitive and the universal, paying tribute to the filmmaker’s grandmother. Meanwhile, Cilama offers an intimate look at the old cinemas, the city of Tripoli and the personal stories of its inhabitants, intertwined with the grand narrative of history. What truly sets this latest documentary apart are its stunning, timeless images that command the big screen. Yet, it feels as though the characters are ready to step out of the frames to speak to us, interspersed with sequences of old films recounting both personal and cinematic stories.
Zaccak strikes a balance between the narrator – a man grappling with the impermanence of films and life – and the director, who strives to piece together fragments of memories. He masterfully handles the art of storytelling, weaving various threads: the city’s history, its cinemas, the deserted movie theaters, and his own journey as a human, witness and filmmaker. He is an observer of this era, chronicling it through his archives, acutely aware of the urgency to capture images, faces and memories before time slips away. May he keep inspiring us with his storytelling.
Cilama by Hady Zaccak will screen on January 14 at 7 PM at Metropolis Cinema as part of Doc Screens – Écrans du Réel.
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