Un Homme Perdu

Director's statement cont

And so the characters in this film are at an ill-defined stage, somewhere between memory, fantasy and headlong flight. My initial observation would be that society creates its own madmen and even more so today in the Middle East than elsewhere: the Arab character physically flees an intolerable society because it stifles free individuals.

The Frenchman, on the other hand, leaves an equally oppressive world to seek refuge in his travels and photography. Najla, the woman who brings them together at last, forsakes the day to hide in the night. Each of these three characters escapes from reality. Like in the cinema.

From this initial observation, the film's form becomes a mental one. The Arab world with its current events and History remains in the background. The characters' journey is above all a personal one. The film's action takes place in Beirut, in taxis, bars, hotels, hospitals, on country roads, in bus stations, on work sites... Places where the men resemble each other, where they could meet up. These settings express above all the bond that unites them. This country in itself. So human above all.

The film that I imagine, however, isn't tragic or sad. It is romantic, sexual, nostalgic and even a little burlesque at times because, in that part of the world, people have learned to make do with the worst and live with it.

However, even though I take my inspiration from the real world at times, this remains a fiction work with a precise screenplay. It finds its roots, as always in my work, in a violent emotion. In this case, in the mental quest of an Arab, in his intense individuality within a clan-like society and in the revelation of the other side of his personality through the friend/enemy, a Frenchman. A stranger."

Danielle Arbid, director 'Un Homme Perdu'.