And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads

fish

Full Name in English And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads
Full Name in Arabic والأسماك تطير فوق رؤوسنا
Running Time 70 min
Country of Production Lebanon
Date of Production 2025
Synopsis

Twenty years ago, I came to a public beach in Beirut to film, a woman observing a world of men. Among them was Réda, his body gleaming in the sun. I started filming him and others. Two decades later, I return to the same spot. To my astonishment, Réda is still there, as if time itself had not moved, only his face marked by wrinkles, his body by age. I begin filming him again, and his two friends, Qassem and Adel. By the sea, I film three men adrift, three aging and fatigued bodies, silent witnesses to a country collapsing under the weight of wars, social despair, and economic crisis.Expecting no miracle, they wait by the sea with the same quiet fatalism that shapes their lives. Their waiting becomes mine, in a space suspended between sleep and wakefulness, between dreams and reality, between past and present.

Director Name Dima Adib El-Horr
About the director

Dima El-Horr’s work explores themes of identity and the impact of war on personal and collective memory.
Her filmography, multiple awards, includes two feature films, Every Day is a Holiday (fiction) and Zeinab Al’Moto (documentary) as well as several shorts.
Her films have been screened at numerous international festivals and museums such as:
TIFF, Visions du Réel, Dok Leipzig, IFFR Rotterdam, RIDM Montreal, MoMA’s New Directors/New Films, Clermont-Ferrand, Hong Kong, Rome, Ann Arbor, São Paulo, Chicago…
And collectively screened at the Bienale de Palermo Manifesta, Tate Museum, Sursock Museum, Eye Museum Amsterdam, and Festival d’Automne/Images du Moyen-Orient.