Sace Woan by Hadi Moussally – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Tripoli, North Lebanon.
At 64, Maha has just taken her retirement from teaching.
This new life puts her in the face of her loneliness as a divorced woman, whose children have left their home to live abroad for years now.
The sole company of her faithful neighbors is no longer enough for Maha to fight the terrible feeling of emptiness and boredom in which she now finds herself.
But had not she always dreamed of being an astronaut? And what if she lets herself drift to this promise of escape?

Director’s Bio: Hadi Moussally was born in Lebanon in 1987.
By age 18, he decides to go study film direction in France where he acquires a first master’s degree in “Fiction Cinema” from Paris-Est Marne la Vallée University. Moussally then chooses to take on a complementary masters in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” from Paris X Nanterre University, in the course of Jean Rouch. In that respect, Hadi Moussally acquainted himself with reality-cinema. The anthropological and documentary approach accustoms him with the sense of keen observation of his subjects and alerts him to the importance of instantaneous shooting; whereas his fictional background gives him the urge of creating sensual, esthetically pleasing imagery universes.
From 2012, Hadi Moussally shifts towards the world of fashion and directs several experimental films some of which received various distinctions in festivals. In 2014 he made his first documentary on the end of his grandmother’s life, and in 2016 a docu-portrait on a senior model. In 2018 he completed an experimental project on albinism „Positive“ whose photos have been exhibited at the UNESCO, the City Hall of Paris and Beirut Art Fair as well. In 2015 he founded the production unit H7O7 whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos with „hybrid“ vocation where is privileged the mixture of genres between experimental, documentary, fashion and fiction.

Director Statement
Cinema has always been a privileged way for me to express myself, especially to deal with issues and themes that awaken in me a feeling of injustice; more generally the norms and constraints imposed by society on our individual freedom.

The film treats elderly women in the Arab world by showing Maha, the newly retired and single woman, trying to handle and deal with her new life. This film also treats immigration and distance by bringing forward the video-relationship she has with her children.
The film mostly talks about the status of women in the Arab communities, where Maha was always thought to be a perfect housewife and great mother, but the society did not tell or make it easy for her to follow her dream.

When my mother told me for the first time that she wanted to be a space MAN (رجل فضاء), I found it funny for a woman to use such a term describing herself. I always wondered why the word astronaut is always translated into Arabic as (رجل فضاء): which means Space Man/Rider. What about female astronauts? So, I slowly started to realize the big gap that still exists between both genders, surely more present in the Arab world. Throughout the years, women have been able to obtain more rights and independency, however, it is still a long process. Especially with my mother, a 64 years old woman, raised in a society that recognizes her as a decent woman only when she is a mother and a good wife. Women of her age today, , weren’t taken seriously and were not allowed to have big dreams during their younger years Her dream of becoming an astronaut is an example.

With time, I am more and more drawn to making films that combine different genres, including documentaries to capture reality and fiction with staging. Which I would like to call: Hybrid.