Award-winning director Abbas Fadel, of Iraqi origin and based in Lebanon, composes a deeply personal and at the same time collective record of the war that ravaged southern Lebanon. According to him, the film “was born out of the need to capture the reality of war: lives shattered, villages razed to the ground, homes destroyed, but also the resilience of a fragile humanity that persists. A film not about war, but through it and what it leaves behind: the ruins, of course, but also the acts of solidarity and the wounds that lie deep within us, often unacknowledged”. The scenes with his little daughter walking among the broken glass and whispering: “It’s broken” stay in memory. The film won the Best Director Award at the Locarno Film Festival.

Franco-Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel creates works blending fiction and documentary. His acclaimed Iraqi documentary Homeland: Iraq Year Zero won numerous festival awards. Based in Lebanon, his recent films like Yara and Tales of the Purple House have premiered at Locarno and the New York Film Festival. The film Tales from the Wounded Land was awarded the Best Director Award at the Locarno Film Festival.