Roy Samaha
2021Landscape at Noon
Roy Samaha
The Lebanese Civil War is nearing its end. A young Lebanese news-photographer quits his job, after having witnessed and photographed someone being killed, only to find himself entangled in the (un)death realm and its ever-unfolding labyrinth. This is a spiritual journey through a hell that strangely resembles a touristic vacation on a sunny Mediterranean landscape.
Landscape at Noon
Lafhat Shams
Roy Samaha
Speculating on the impact of a 1989 solar storm, Roy Samaha's film mimics the unpredictable release of energy flares, layering personal histories with major geopolitical events as it shifts from his family's Beirut home to Bucharest, Berlin, and further afield.
Sun Rave
Residue
Roy Samaha
As a filmmaker and artist, Roy Samaha explores the non-linear relationships between images, memory and history through embodied experience. Residue began as a trip from Beirut to Izmir on Turkey’s Aegean coast. From there, Samaha headed northward to Ayvalik, an old seaport village in the country’s northwest region, where he caught a ferryboat that took him to Greece’s ancient city of Mytilene. The artist retraces the journey of successive waves of migration, following the route of people moving from the Aegean, Anatolian and southern European regions to the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Based on Samaha’s journey, Residue is a moving image diary comprised of over 85 GIFs that explore the recurring movement of waters, peoples and cultures.
Residue