Meantime in Beirut by Merdad Hage (Lebanon, 2002, 29 minutes, BetaSP)

Synopsis:
Lamice, a Lebanese woman and Canadian citizen, returns to Beirut to decide whether or not she wants to renovate her family's dilapidated apartment and take up residence. She soon discovers that the past is never far away in the beleaguered city, where memories of her war-torn childhood haunt her. Through her struggle to find a builder, she lives out the challenges faced by post-civil war Lebanon.
In Arabic with English subtitles.

Biography:
Born in Beirut in 1966, Merdad Antoine Hage earned a degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut in 1989. While practicing as an architect in New York, he became seriously interested in filmmaking following a summer course at NYU. In 1991, he immigrated to Montreal where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Film production. Since then, Merdad Hage has worked in numerous productions as producer, scriptwriter or assistant director. His filmography includes Spliced`n Spiced (1996), Shh... SIDA (1998) and Baghdad Vitrine (2000). Meantime in Beirut is his fourth short.

Festivals & Awards:
World Film Festival, Montreal, 2002
Beirut Film Festival, 2002
Rendez-vous du cinema Quebecois, Montreal, 2003
7eme Regard sur le court metrage au Saguenay, Festival de courts metrages quebecois et etrangers, Chicoutimi, Canada, 2003
Film Exchange: NSI'S Canadian Film Festival, Winnipeg, 2003
Arab Film Festival, San Francisco, 2003
The 23rd Atlantic Film Festival, Halifax, 2003