Documentary, director: Eliane Raheb, Lebanon/Germany/Spain, 2021, 128 min., Arab./Spa./En./Fr. with En. ST

23.4.2022 | 19.30 | Kulturbrauerei |
followed by a film talk with director Eliane Raheb, moderated by Dr. Norman Saadi Nikro (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient)

“Miguel’s War” tells the story of Miguel, a gay man who grew up oppressed and shamed during the Lebanese civil war. He was raised by a conservative Catholic father and an authoritarian Syrian mother. Desperate to find acceptance and to conform to the dominant concepts of Masculinity, he joined one of the militias actively fighting during the civil war. But his experience was a failure. Traumatized he immigrates to Madrid, where he could finally live as an openly gay man. Yet it took him thirty-seven years to learn to accept himself, build a new and successful life and finally be able to return to Lebanon to face his trauma and the ghosts of his past. Using intertwining cinematic forms, melding documentary, animation, theatre and archive and filmed on location in Lebanon and Spain, “Miguel’s War” offers an intimate perspective into Miguel’s courageous process of self-confrontation and catharsis. The film premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2021 where it won the Teddy Award.