23 min. Arabic, French.
A yearning in an unsettled space that, once, was shared and breathed by two cineastes, living in two different cities, trying to sustain their longing through each other’s scattered images, sounds, and monologues, pieced together in one film, one dialogue, one soul flown away by loneliness and fallen apart like a forsaken angel.
Aala kad al shawk – Le Voyage immobile (or As Far as Yearning) is that dialogue-in-progress taking the shape of a film composed by sound, performed by words, perforated by images still in motion. Ghassan Salhab and Mohamed Soueid are embracing a sense of survival. This film is a sixth sense they nurtured in a world that has become faceless. Their film essay is a personal attempt to be two in one. Disguised as men, they walk among men who left behind their shadows.
Mohamed Soueid, born in 1959 in Beirut, Lebanon, is a writer, director, and producer. He is currently the head of the documentary department at Al Arabiya News Channel. He has directed several films and written three books: “Postponed Cinema - Lebanese Films During the Civil War” (1986); “O Heart - A Film Autobiography On The Late Movie Theatres Of Old Beirut” (1996), and the novel “Cabaret Souad” (2004).
Ghassan Salhab was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1958. In addition to making his own films, he collaborates on screenplays in Lebanon and France. He also teaches film in Lebanon. Ghassan Salhab has also published his texts and articles in various magazines. In 2012, he published his first anthology, Fragments du livre du naufrage.
