Said Serhan

Beirut Hold’em depicts the life of Ziko, a 40-year old ex-con and petty gambler, and his three boyhood friends, in a seedy, lower-middle class district of Beirut. They’re fighting their way into a country on the edge of war and bankruptcy, where instability makes everyday life feel like Russian roulette, and sheer existence is yet another form of gambling.

Six fresh short films on the topic "Own and Stranger" from even more fresh Estonian directors.

The murderer of Jabal’s father, is spotted alive in Bulgaria. Jabal heads a fierce hunt passing by Bulgaria and Istanbul. With the aim to bring Nazem back to justice to Al Hayba village.

In a war-torn Middle Eastern city where music has been banned by Islamic extremists, Karim, a brilliant musician, struggles to rebuild his destroyed piano while trying to escape to Europe.

In a city run by ruthless career criminals and cold-blooded killers, a fearless young woman vows vengeance against the most powerful and dangerous one of them all.

On the eve of an invasion in 1982 Lebanon, an 11-year-old boy at a mountain school is determined to express his feelings to a classmate. As tension builds across the country, the day takes an unexpected turn, reflecting the fragile line between innocence and conflict. Through a child's eyes, the film explores the impact of war, the power of love, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Therese, the mayor's wife in a Lebanese village, joyfully prepares for an overnight visit of her daughter's suitor and his parents. She excitedly shares the happy news of the engagement with pictures of her beloved brother who was killed by a Syrian bomb 20 years ago and is still bizarrely present in every corner of her house. Only when the long-awaited guests are at her doorstep, she discovers they are Syrian; this engagement will only happen over Therese's dead body!

Beirut, at night. Said begins his first shift as a security guard. His orders are clear: watch a bridge. However, in the heart of “the city that never dies”, the exercise is going to be more complicated than it seems.

Beirut, Lebanon. On the waterfront’s construction site, security agent Raed must prevent passing-by walkers from accessing the seaside. Yet as the horizon becomes each day more stifled by the construction, Raed makes peculiar encounters—mere dreams, or symbols of his desires?

Four darkly funny tales about Lebanon: Activists planning a protest descend into internal strife. Three sisters and their mother argue while an incompetent plumber destroys their flat. Depressed life coach Malek wants to die and seeks help from a «death coach». A stand-up comedian who jokes about a meteor strike that could put Lebanon out of its misery, is blamed when it appears to come true.

In a world where even his brothers in arms are against him, 38-years-old Police officer Rawad Fakhoury executes a mission impossible to provide a kidney for his dying daughter. The clock is ticking while there's no one to trust but himself.

The lives of two women — Maki, a suicidal Ethiopian migrant worker and Zorro, an out-of-work actress — intersect when a diamond-smuggling operation in Beirut goes terribly wrong.

After 20 years apart, Samir a former militiaman who was presumed dead, reappears in the life of Omar, his little brother who has become a bodyguard in Beirut. Between drama and comedy, Samir has to come to terms with a country he no longer recognizes.