Maroun Returns to Beirut (Feyrouz Serhal) Lebanon |

Maroun Returns to Beirut
Feyrouz Serhal
Lebanon, Qatar. 2024. 125 min

2023 marked the thirtieth anniversary of Maroun Baghdadi’s sudden and tragic death. Maroun was a Lebanese filmmaker who wrote and directed films during the Lebanese civil war and contributed to documentary and fiction filmmaking from 1973 up until his death in 1993. In this film, Feyrouz Serhal embarks on a day trip in Beirut and navigates the city that profoundly shaped Maroun’s journey in life and cinema. Here she encounters individuals who were close to him and who shared his experiences. And as she traverses Maroun’s life and career, the social and political backdrop moves to the foreground. The film reflects on the last fifty years of the history of the country from a present standpoint. Through Maroun’s story, we perceive how cinema can, beautifully and dramatically, portray our stories and discourse our life events.

FEYROUZ SERHAL

Feyrouz Serhal acquired her Master’s degree in Film and Screen Studies at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2009. Her short narrative film TSHWEESH won the film prize of Robert Bosch Stiftung during Berlinale 2016 and was premiered in Locarno Film Festival in 2017. TSHWEESH has screened in more than 60 festivals around the world. In 2021 Feyrouz wrote and directed the short film I COME FROM THE SEA. And in 2023 she finished her last short film SEN TI. She is now developing I AM HERE BUT YOU CAN’T SEE ME, her first feature narrative film as director.

DIRECTOR´S NOTE

is a film about a film director. About Beirut, his city and mine. About cinema, his passion and mine. On the occasion of Maroun Baghdadi’s death anniversary, I decided to bring him back to the city he loved most, to the city I love most. And while I planned the itinerary of my journey, he was my guide. Through his films, I constructed my trip, my film. Through his shots, I saw his places, I recognized mine. With his friends, comrades, colleagues, I sat and chatted about him. He was there, agreeing and disagreeing, I could see his mischievous smile. I got him back to Beirut primarily because I wanted to get to know him better, maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but after that time spent with him, I am certain and it is undeniable that cinema and life can’t be navigated but through passion, that cinema and life beautifully entwine. That is the only way it should be. The only way it can be.