Irish directors Stephen Gerard Kelly and Garry Kean take viewers to Lebanon for their staggering documentary In the Shadow of Beirut. The central locations are Sabra and Shatila, right on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital. It’s a heartrending film about community, and one Kelly and Kean clearly poured themselves into.
One obvious way you can tell the filmmakers embraced their subjects is the fact that Kelly and Kean spent years in these areas, beginning in 2018. Beirut, once known as “the Paris of the Middle East,” is now embroiled in a staggering economic crisis with some of the highest refugee numbers per capita. We then see various individuals fighting against these conditions.
You have the Abeeds, who fled Syria to Lebanon to escape civil war. We see young Abu Ahmad, living in Shatila and trying to make a living as a garbage collector (and then for a fruit vendor who takes pity on him) for a meager $3 per day. He works from 7 am-9 pm daily, amidst gunshots and other violence.
In Sabra, we meet the Kujeyje family. Ayman, the patriarch, tries his best to keep his family together, including protecting his young daughter Sanaa, who is at risk of even taking a single step outside. However, a planned engagement soon arises. Ayman, who also has four other children, believes that the engagement will help protect Sanaa. The engagement is a matter of convenience, not love, and seeing the father and daughter interact is awkward and uneasy.
One of the more heartbreaking segments of the film deals with Rabia, a hardworking yet undocumented Lebanese mother who tries valiantly to care for her chronically ill daughter. Rabia can’t afford hospital care, and a particularly tense scene of her rebandaging her daughter’s wounds really drives the point home that In the Shadow of Beirut is a truly brutal, eye-opening film. It gets even more heartbreaking with the story of Aboodi, an ex-convict trying to kick a drug habit. He’s trying to make amends for his past, not only for himself but for his son as well, but his designation as a former prisoner follows him wherever he goes, making it almost impossible to get ahead.
Gerard Kelly and Keane illustrate the hardships of these characters and their families to an almost unbearable degree. It’s worth noting that they themselves do not insert themselves into these stories, and rather let the stories, as harrowing as they may be, play out on their own. The film, co-produced by Hilary and Chelsea Clinton, tackles a variety of subjects: the refugee crisis, the strength of family and friendship, economic uncertainty, and holding onto hope in uncertain times. In the Shadow of Beirut would fit a lecture setting on refugees or the Middle East. It would also work well for pupils studying political science or economics.