Taste of Cement

At dawn, Syrian labourers wake up. They live in a huge hole in Beirut. They prepare themselves to leave, using a wooden ladder that leads them to the outer world. The hole is in the basement of a big building that looks at Beirut. The labourers spend their days erecting the building till sunset, and then they return to the hole. They can’t walk in the city they built because of a curfew law applied on Syrians. The only place they can go to, when they’re not working is that hole. In the hole, there is a TV set that shows them the destruction of their houses in Syria.

LENGTH

Feature

GENRE

Documentary

PRODUCED IN

STATUS

WITH THE HELP OF

meet the director

Ziad Kalthoum was born in 1981, in Homs, Syria. He graduated from the Cinema Institute, in the USSR. He directed two documentary films, “The Immortal Sergeant” in 2013 and “Oh Heart” in 2011. Ziad also collaborated in many films, from shorts and features, including documentary and fiction films to TV series. He is currently preparing his new documentary in Lebanon “Beirut Rooster”.

meet the producer

Mohammad Ali Atassi is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. His research interests include film and media studies, sociology, Middle Eastern studies, Islam, human rights, art and politics. In 2013, he founded Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, Beirut and Damascus, where he is currently Executive Director.

meet the producer

meet the impact producer

related news

Please note that the information presented from our programs is taken directly from the official publication from each edition. While this information is limited, it is the information given to us by the main project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications, and is meant only as a historical record of the film or project at the time of its involvement with Aflamuna.