Children of the Famine (Abna' al majaa)
Qumra Projects
Reine Mitri / Feature Documentary / Lebanon, Qatar
In Arabic
Interests: Documentary, Politics, History
Rated: This film has not been rated.
- Come back soon to see screening dates
Synopsis
Between 1915 and 1918, a famine killed an estimated two hundred thousand people, almost half of the population of Mount Lebanon at that time, a region that formed the ‘Moutasarrifiya’ and had a special status in the Ottoman Empire. During the tragedy, villages were entirely emptied; today only ruins remain there. The hungry who fled to cities like Beirut and Tripoli that were outside Mount Lebanon begged and moaned for food while watching the luxurious meals from the windows of wealthy monopolists. The dead were buried in unmarked mass graves all over the territory, and some were even thrown into the sea. Despite the extent of the disaster, today there is no memorial or national day for these dead. Why has the memory of this famine been excluded from official history?
About the Director
Reine Mitri is a writer, director and producer. The primary theme of her films is personal and collective memory. Always interweaving the intimate and the public, she delves into the reasons for personal and collective malaise. Over the past 15 years, she documented the changes in Beirut in particular and Lebanon in general, challenging the official endeavours to obliterate the country’s memory. Since 2001, she has made six films including ‘In This Land Lay Graves of Mine’ which documents forced displacements during the Lebanese civil war and the country’s present-day divisions.
Credits
- Director
- Reine Mitri
- Screenwriter
- Reine Mitri
- Producer
- Reine Mitri