On the 4th day, a disguised dictator is on the run and a film by a Syrian director who died in the war.

The Abraj Theaters in Furn ash-Shebbak will still be hosting this Saturday October 4 the fourth day of the 14th edition of the Beirut International film Festival.

Films showing at 5 pm include Desert Dancer, by British director Richard Raymond, which chornicles the life of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian. It is produced by Saudi filmmaker Mohammad al-Turki and filmed on location in Morocco, France and Great Britain. Lilting, an award-winning movie at the Sundance Film Festival by Cambodian-born British director Hong Khaou, tells the story of a Chinese widow who lives in Britain and who does not speak English. When her son dies, she experiences cultural estrangement.

Also under the International Panorama category, When Monalisa Smiled, by Jordanian director Fadi Haddad, is a romantic comedy about Monalisa, a Jordanian girl who never smiles until she falls in love with Hamdi, the Egyptian tea guy and co-worker in a government department. This prompts her to seek autonomy and break free from social constraints.

Monaliza

The Arab Spring revolutions, and specifically the war in Syria, provide for the backdrop of Transit Game, a short film by Iranian-born U.S. director Anna Fahr, starring Sajed Amer, Jalal Altawil and Rachad Salloum. The story takes place in the northern mountains of Lebanon, where a Syrian man hoping to reunite with family torn apart by war encounters two Palestinian children.

Transit Game

Starring Catherine Deneuve, Adèle Haenel and Guillaume Canet, L’Homme qu’On Aimait Trop, by André Téchiné, tells a three-way love story involving a mother, her daughter and a handsome young man blinded by his pursuit of money. The rich girl falls in love with the lawyer who is ten years older than her. Based on a true story, L’Homme qu’On Aimait Trop marks the seventh collaboration between Téchiné and Deneuve.

L’Homme Qu’on Aimait Trop

Screening at 7.30 pm under the International Panorama category is Siddarth, an Indian movie directed by Richie Mehta, which chronicles a father’s journey across India to look for his 12-year-old son, whom he fears has been kidnapped by child traffickers.

Siddarth

At the same time, May in The Summer is a film by U.S. director Cherien Dabis, who is born to a Palestinian father and a Jordanian mother and who played the leading role in the film. Starring Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat and Nadine Malouf, it tells the story of a Christian Palestinian girl living in the United States who returns to Amman to marry her Muslim fiancé despite her mother’s objections. May in The Summer competed for prizes at the Sundance and Dubai film festivals. Dabis herself has won several prizes, including the Arab Muhr Award for the Best Short Film for her 2006 short film Make A Wish.

Amreeka, her first feature film, received an award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and won the Arab Muhr Award for Best Actress at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Syria Inside

Under the Short Film category, Syria Inside is a film by Syrian director Tamer Alawam who died a few months ago in Aleppo as a result of the ongoing Syrian war. His friends and associates, including German director Jan Heilig, decided to continue making the film despite Tamer’s death.

Also showing at 7.30 pm is Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President, an Iranian film inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions. This opening film at the latest Biennale in Venice is about a dictator on the run with his five-year-old grandson following a coup d’état. The former dictator, now disguised as a street musician, comes into contact with his people, gets to know them from a different point of view and realizes the injustice he inflicted upon his people. The last scenes of the movie are reminiscent of the fate of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi, knowing that it was shot on location in Georgia.

The President

10 pm screenings include Night Moves, by U.S. director Kelly Reichardt. This film features Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, and tells the story of three environmentalists coming together to blow up a hydroelectric dam. This film won the Grand Special Prize at the 2013 Deauville Film Festival and Best DOP at the Valladolid International Film Festival, and was slated for winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Night Moves

The Man of The Crowd (O Homem das Multidões) is a Brazilian film directed by Marcelo Gomes and screening at another theater. Inspired by an eponymous 1840 short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it tackles contemporary loneliness through the life of a shy train driver who is engrossed in his work in his job with no social life. This film was screened under the Panorama category at the 64th Berlin International Festival.

Also showing at 10 pm is Stromboli, a 1949 movie by late Italian director Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977) and one of six Rossellini works to be screened during the festival.