Alumna filmmaker premieres her first full-length film in Lebanon
Dima El-Horr’s Chaque Jour est une Fête (Every Day is a Holiday) tells the story of three women on a bus traveling to a prison, each for a different reason.
![[photo]](filmmaker-dima-horr-01-180.jpg)
Chaque Jour est unea Fête (Every Day is a Holiday), the first full-length film by Lebanese filmmaker Dima El-Horr, an LAU alumna and former LAU film instructor, started showing in Lebanon yesterday.
![[photo]](filmmaker-dima-horr-02-180.jpg)
It tells the story of three women on a bus traveling to a prison in the Lebanese backcountry, each for a different reason. To learn more, you can attend El-Horr's presentation at LAU, October 4.
After having shown her first full-length film, Chaque Jour est une Fête (Every Day is a Holiday), in numerous international festivals, Lebanese filmmaker Dima El-Horr, an LAU alumna and former LAU film instructor who now lives in France, has returned to Lebanon for the local premiere of the film, which started showing in select theaters yesterday.
Shot in the Bekaa, Chaque Jour est une Fête tells the story of three women, unknown to one another, who are on a bus traveling to a men’s prison, each for a different reason. A stray bullet kills the bus driver before they arrive, forcing the women to go through a tumultuous journey toward their destination.
“The film was written for the Lebanese,” El-Horr says, explaining how the characters embody the fears and anxieties of Lebanese people.
“It deals with death. Lebanese have a close proximity with death, and feel that death is always following them,” she adds. “You feel like these characters are always entrapped in danger, like something bad is always going to happen, catastrophe is going to fall on them.”
The 87-minute film (in French and Arabic) is a joint Lebanese/French/German production, though only the governments of France and Germany provided financing.
El-Horr graduated from LAU (then BUC) in 1994 with a B.A. in Communication Arts (radio/TV/film). Later, she received a Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking from the Art Institute of Chicago.
She returned to LAU in 2001 as a part-time film instructor, where she taught till 2008, and has since lived in France.
Chaque Jour est une Fête first premiered in September 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Canada. It has since been selected to show at festivals in Italy, the Netherlands, France, the UAE, Germany, the United States, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Morocco, Grenada, England, Tunisia and Chile.
In Lebanon, the film will be showing in select theaters only, including Espace in Kaslik, Sofil in Ashrafieh, and Sodeco in Sodeco Square.
Watch the trailer or check the film’s Facebook page for more information.
Those interested in learning more about the film can attend the presentation El-Horr will give at LAU Beirut’s Gulbenkian Theatre on October 4, at 5:00 p.m.
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