Ahmad Ghossein is a filmmaker and video artist who graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts from the Lebanese University. He won Best Director at the Beirut International Film Festival in 2004 for his short film, ‘Operation N’. He has since directed several documentaries and videos including ‘My Father Is Still a Communist’ commissioned by Sharja Art Foundation and in competition at DTFF 2011. He also directed ‘210m’, commissioned by Ashkal Alwan for the first edition of Video Works and ‘An Arab Comes to Town’, a documentary shot in Denmark and produced by DR2 the Danish National TV.

DFI: From theater to cinema, where do you mostly find yourself?
Ahmad: I have graduated from theater and I cannot say that I came from theater to cinema because for five years I was working in both domains and they are two different worlds with diverse exposures. I worked more in physical theater and it is a magic moment to be on stage. Studying acting helped a lot, because it taught me how to deal with different characters and how to write about them. I consider myself a filmmaker because this is where I found my inner voice. While still in college, I became obsessed with cinema and my graduate film won Best Director. Besides, to study cinema in Lebanon is only available in private universities, which I couldn’t afford.

DFI: Your works have the tendency to transform general events into personal stories. Are you inspired by collective memory from the heart of Lebanon?
Ahmad: The main issue for any filmmaker, in my opinion, is trying to tackle the complexity of human beings. We face this problem in Lebanon specifically because of the general events of war and politics that resonate with strong implications. It can also be inspiring but one should be aware not to turn the film into a mere reaction to what has been experienced on the ground, unless it’s intentional. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, filmmakers contacted each other in order to work on a reaction video, aimed at being a direct message against the war. I took part in it and filmed a short film, which was a direct action call against the war. It took me a year and a half to go back to the rushes, I waited until I was ready to deal with the images more objectively, ask deeper questions, and create a different dimension. This was not only about the war, but about the personal time gap required to shift from the ruins, to the collective memory around this incident. What’s beautiful about cinema is that we’re capable of making a story about a personal emotional journey, and that’s the best way to tell the audience about general events away from direct speeches. I consider that transforming general events into personal stories will help me and audiences reach deeper meanings.

DFI: You have revived the past through archive in your documentary ‘My Father Is Still a Communist’ that we are looking forward to seeing this year at DTFF. Are you trying to recreate a personal version of modern history?
Ahmad: When you deal with archive you are not reviving the past, but you are stimulating the memory to say something else. I found fifty hours of audio-tapes (cassettes) in the basement of my parents’ house. They used to send these tapes as love letters to each other when my father was abroad for work. We can say that they recorded their intimate life within the context of harsh political and social conditions. This archive is the main story; the story that took away the dreams and passions of a generation that lost its political struggle. I didn’t try to recreate anything since the history is mentioned through personal stories, and the past is always stronger than the future. The main challenge for me was to stand against reality (archive) in order to enlighten the fictional story.

DFI: You moved from the ME to Denmark with ‘An Arab comes to town’, can you tell us more about the documentary and your motives?
Ahmad: In 2007, I got invited to Copenhagen in order to work on a documentary about the second generation of Arab youth living there and their problems of integration. I was supposed to collaborate with a Danish filmmaker and the idea of co-directing was new and interesting for me. The challenge was about how to handle a topic that had been treated so many times before. We agreed that we should start filming the research process, so the cameraman was filming me and I was filming the characters. Speaking the language of those angry Arab teenagers helped on going a step further and digging more into their problems and dreams. The motivation was to highlight a generation that lost its identity; slowly we found ourselves part of the conflict. George the Danish director was trying to defend his society and I was trying to find sufficient justification for the identity conflict experienced by those teenagers.

The peak of the film is when I followed one of them to jail after he stabbed five Danish teenagers because they were racists against him. This young man tells you why he is lost, why he doesn’t feel home in Denmark or anywhere else. He was so genuine and honest in a way that confuses our stand against him as a person who just committed crimes. The film was in theaters and the national Danish TV and received five hundred thousand admissions.

DFI: Congratulations on your DFI grant for the feature narrative ‘Upside Down’, what is the film about?
Ahmad: Thanks a lot, the film takes place during the 2006 war in Lebanon. Marwan the main character of the film goes to his village in the South during a ceasefire to search for his dad who refused to run away with the family. When he reaches the village he finds out that his house has been destroyed. He meets an old man that takes him to the underground floor of a house where he is hiding with another man. Later on, a couple of other old men and middle-aged women join them to hide. Marwan can’t leave at this stage because it has turned dark and Israeli soldiers are about to occupy the village. Seven of these soldiers break into the first floor unaware that our five characters are hiding underneath. The protagonists are now trapped, not only are they imprisoned in their location but in their own fears, worries and the circumstances of this surreal setting.

After three days, this extraordinary situation rapidly develops into an existential conflict among the civilians based on personal experiences and political disputes. Ten centimetres of cement separates them from what’s above and as a result, an alternative social structure develops between the five civilians.

DFI: If you were to classify yourself, what types of filmmakers would you be?
Ahmad: I do fiction films, videos and documentaries, depending on projects and ideas. Sometimes I break the borders between them all, it all depends on what and how you want to tell your story and what you want your image to portray, and of course depending on the available budget.

DFI: Which films/filmmakers inspire you the most and why?
Ahmad: This is the most difficult question since I watched lots of films and there are many amazing filmmakers; cinema history is filled with masterpieces. I can name you ten films today and they would change in a matter of a year.

I am more into cinema that is coming from poets and philosophy, and that’s why I am fond of: Andrei Tarkovsky, Luis Buñuel, Michelangelo Antonioni, Carl Dreyer and for different reasons I like Jacques Tati, Marco Ferreri and Jodorowsky.

DFI: What is your message to filmmakers in the beginning of their path?
Ahmad: To Watch ‘Ellembi’, an Egyptian film and go to the other extreme by reading ‘Sculpting in Time’ by filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. You will not change anything in the world, and to make films in our region means that you should take your own initiatives and not just sit back and wait.