Archive | Cinema

2018 Box Office Results in Lebanon

By Rami on March 19, 2019 in Cinema, Lebanon, Movies, Social

I know we’re so over 2018 but I always find it interesting to see statistics of people’s behavior and preferences in Lebanon. Few weeks ago, Rania Ghanem from Business News published a piece on the top ten movies at the box office in Lebanon during last as well as the market share for each movie theater chain.

Teh result for the top ten movies came as follows:

It is interesting to know that five of the top performing movies were Lebanese. However, aside from Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, almost all the Lebanese movies got mocked and criticized on social platforms for their mediocre storyline and level of acting. This comes to prove that opinions on social networks in general are very far from representing the masses, just as in the case with politics for example. We hate on all politicians online, yet they easily win the elections. We all support civil marriage online, but the populations in general is in fact against it.

The results also explain the increasing number of Lebanese movie every year. People in general seem to be enjoying them despite how mediocre they are, and Maguy Ghosn still has a lot to give!

On the other hand, market share was distributed among the movie theater chains as follows:

Grand Cinemas 38% (1.4 million visitors)
Empire Cinemas 31% (1.2 million visitors)
VOX Cinemas 15% (559,000 visitors)
Cinemall 10% (379,000 visitors)
Stargate 3% (112,000 visitors)
Planete 2% (89,000 visitors)

You can check the original article here.

Susan Sarandon and Ben Stiller Are in Beirut!

By Rami on March 4, 2019 in Cinema, Documentaries, Movies

I just stumbled upon a post by Beirut Digital District showing Susan Sarandon and Ben Stiller along with Nadine Labaki attending a private screening of the documentary film Soufra at BDD.

The film follows the story of a Palestinian refugee, Mariam Shaar, from Bourj Al Barajneh camp as she establishes a catering business with the help of other women from her community and succeeds to expand it into a food truck business with the funding and support of Alfanar venture philanthropy.

Soufra follows the unlikely and wildly inspirational story of intrepid social entrepreneur, Mariam Shaar – a generational refugee who has spent her entire life in the Burj El Barajneh refugee camp just south of Beirut, Lebanon. The film follows Mariam as she sets out against all odds to change her fate by launching a successful catering company, “Soufra,” and then expand it into a food truck business with a diverse team of fellow refugee woman who now share this camp as their home. Together, they heal the wounds of war through the unifying power of food while taking their future into their own hands through an unrelenting belief in Mariam, and in each other. In the process, Mariam is breaking barriers, pulling together Syrian, Iraqi, Palestinian and Lebanese women to work side by side and form beautiful friendships while running this thriving business.

Soufra will shine a new and revealing light on people inside of the largest refugee crisis in human history, but ultimately this film is about hope, grit, passion and the common bonds created by bringing people together around food as a bridge to overcome all barriers. Though Mariam is officially considered “stateless” she is a beacon of hope and home for thousands upon thousands of women in the most unlikely of places. Mariam and her team will be just that for thousands more once her story is told through Soufra. Source

Susan Sarandon is in fact the executive producer for Soufra and she decided to contribute into this documentary after learning about Mariam Shaar’s inspiring story.

Review – “Film Ameriki Tawil” 36 Years Later

By Rami on October 11, 2016 in Cinema, Reviews

Last night was the avant premiere for the highly anticipated Film Ameriki Tawil and I had the privilege to be among the attendees. Needless to say, it was really awesome to finally see the original footage of this play since I have always enjoyed listening to this masterpiece by Ziad Rahbani on the radio!

As in the case with Bennesbe Labokra Chou, M Media did a fantastic job by reconstructing several old videos in order to create this movie. However, unlike last year’s end result, Film Ameriki Tawil has a better image quality, looks much smoother thanks to the use of fixed cameras during the original recording, and has an almost consistent audio level and quality. So if you felt annoyed by the shaky image in “Bennesbe Labokra Chou” then I can guarantee this one is much more better and has much better scene transitions. In my opinion, this movie does more justice to Ziad Rahbani’s work than the previous one.

As far as the acting is concerned, I believe I would be stating the obvious by telling it was impressive. I mostly loved the authentic performance by Joseph Sakr, Ziad Abou Absi and Rafik Najem. Watching Sakr singing three time during the play/movie was alone a treat for me! So, to make a long story short, I highly recommend you go watch it and take older people like your parents with you because they’ll definitely get some good memories and laughs back! The official release date is set for October 20th, and for those who would like to get a sneak peak of it I have shared a beautiful video on Facebook of “Raj3a bi iznillah” with the whole cast dancing to it. (link)

However, as I recommended last year, do yourself a favor and delay booking your tickets a bit, Ziad’s diehard fans will naturally attend the early screenings and my opinion about them still stands, they’re annoying! One guy was sitting behind us last night and almost recited the whole scenario while the movie was playing.

On another note, I have a good new to whoever missed watching Bennesbe Labokra Chou last year, the guys from M Media will soon be officially launching their streaming service which will allow you to watch their productions for $5 per month (think of it as a Lebanese Netflix) and that includes Bennesbe Labokra Chou which will also be available for watching on their website.

Film Ameriki Tawil is Coming Out in October

By Rami on September 5, 2016 in Cinema, Theater

film ameriki tawil

When Bennesbe Labokra Shou started showing earlier this year, M Media promised that Film Ameriki Tawil will hit the theater next, and they just released their trailer for it both on their website and on Facebook announcing that it is coming out in October.

Judging from the trailer and the footage they released earlier, the image quality seems to be significantly better and more stable than that of Bennesbe Labokra Shou.

I personally never get bored of listening to Film Ameriki Tawil on the radio and can’t wait for the release date. Let’s hope Shi Feshil is next on the list for M Media as I guess we are all eager to know how tiny was that gypsum waterfall in the play!

The trailer is available here and here.

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