67 min
Nadim Mishlawi
Documentary
2011 - Lebanon, United Arab Emirates
Canadian Premiere
Featuring Hazem Saghiyeh, Chawki Azouri, Bernard Khoury
On the outskirts of Beirut lies the notorious, now derelict, area of Karantina. Sector Zero is a beautifully shot film that examines the area’s tumultuous history, using it as a metaphor for Lebanon’s own troubled past. Tracing the area’s history through its landmark buildings – the Ottoman-built Quarantine Facility, the slaughterhouse, the tannery and the nightclub – this once vacant plot of land evolved into a multinational ghetto of refugees, including Palestinians, and was the sight of a massacre in 1976 during the civil war. Relying on the insights of a psychologist, a writer and an architect, Sector Zero analyses the traumas of this urban void in modern-day Lebanon, and how its dark history mirrors Lebanon’s erratic progression as a country in search of its national identity.
Co-presented by Images Festival
Screened with Archipelago