I don’t really enjoy watching Lebanese movies or TV shows because I always have the impression that they’re shot using cameras made for home use with bad lighting, horrible sound and really unconvincing actors. I feel there is always an echo, and to add to that, almost all the stories are the same: guy and girl are in love, girls parents refuse to acknowledge that, guy and girl need to find a way to make it work. Sometimes there is a drunk uncle who ends up killing the guy or the girl.
Let’s not talk about the acting… every actor has the same look in every scene. They all look like they’re really thinking veeeeeeery hard.
A couple of weeks ago I started watching a series on YouTube called Beirut I love you [Link]. It’s a series of short films (~2 to 4 minutes) and the story revolves around the lives of a group of friends who live in Beirut.
I really enjoy the way the clips are shot. For a team of amateurs, I think they do a better job than the pros we have in Lebanon. The two main actors also write and direct the show.
You might recognize the main actor, Cyril Aris, from a recent bank commercial for car loans. My Dad loves that commercial, he laughs every time he sees it. Can’t find a clip online though. It’s the one where a girl asks a guy to drop her off after a party, and the guy agrees and stops a service and opens the doors for her. He says he has a dentist appointment and ends up going home on his mobilette.
The clips are in Arabic with English subtitles.
Here’s a link to the YouTube account of Orange Dog Productions, which produces these short films [Link]