The Mountain
Fall Grant 2010 - Post-Production Stage
Ghassan Salhab / Feature Narrative / Lebanon, Qatar / 2010 / 85 min / Black & White / Original Language: Arabic, English / Interests: Drama, War, Avant Garde
Synopsis
A work of shadowy implosion, the stark and largely silent narrative of Lebanese director Ghassan Salhab’s fifth film is certain to captivate some audience members and infuriate others. With subtle nods to classics such as Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ and Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘The Passenger’, this black-and-white meditation displays masterful lighting and cinematography as it tells the story of a man checking into a distant, desolate hotel. On his journey up to the place there’s a sudden detour, a mysterious car crash. Once he settles in to his hotel stay, only the whistling of the wind and the slow decay of a decorative pinecone interrupt his waiting, until the violent, final scene. Though the entire film’s running time is only about 90 minutes, some scenes here seem to linger for hours, while their powerful impact may last even longer.
Credits
- Director
- Ghassan Salhab
- Screenwriter
- Ghassan Salhab
- Producer
- Georges Schoucair
About the Director
Lebanese filmmaker Ghassan Salhab collaborates on a variety of screenplays and teaches film in Lebanon. He has directed six feature-length films: ‘Beyrouth fantôme’, ‘Terra Incognita’,
‘The Last Man’, ‘1958’, ‘The Mountain’ and ‘The Valley’; and numerous video works, including ‘Baalbeck’ (co-directed with Akram Zaatari and Mohamad Soueid); ‘Nobody’s Rose’; ‘My Dead Body My Living Body’; ‘Lost Narcissus’; ‘(Posthumous)’; ‘Il massacro degli innocenti’; ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’; and ‘Son image’ In 2016, Salhab was a DAAD guest resident. In 2010, La Rochelle International Film Festival and JCC hels a tribute to his work.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
Doha Tribeca FF 2010 (WP)
FIDMarseille FF 2011
Toronto IFF 2011