Ila Ayn

+Double feature! (Part 2)
+Lebanese

Saturday, 9/29
3:10 p.m.

Buy tickets >>>

The new documentary A Certain Nasser about the legendary filmmaker Georges Nasser screens just before the restoration of his classic film.

WHERE TO?  / ILA AYN?
الى عين

Georges Nasser
classic narrative
90 mins / 1957
Lebanon
Arabic with English subtitles
Minnesota premiere

Restoration by Abbout Productions, Lebanon

A poor family lives in a village in the Lebanese mountains. One day, the father abandons them and leaves for Brazil, considered an Eldorado by his compatriots. Twenty years pass. The mother raises her children with great difficulty. The elder now has a family and the younger is getting ready to emigrate to Brazil. One day a ragged old man arrives to the village. No one recognizes him, not even his son, whom he gives blood to in order to save his life. This classic film tackles themes and issues that feel relevant even for today’s numerous migrations, because it considers the agony of residing in a country without a future and the cruelty of an exile that fails to provide a better life.

Select Festivals:
Cannes Film Festival, France, 2018
Dubai International Film Festival, UAE, 2018
Arab Film Festival, Brazil, 2018

Georges Nasser was born in Tripoli in 1927 and studied cinema at UCLA. When he returned to Lebanon, he was determined to make films, though the Lebanese film industry was almost nonexistent. His first feature, Ila Ayn?, became the first film to represent Lebanon in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. At 91, he continues to teach new generations of Lebanese filmmakers at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts.