Mughammarat Elias Mabruk: A strange, dusty homecoming

Is it worth your time?

If you're the kind of person who digs through archives to find out where cinema started in specific countries, absolutely. If you want a tight, well-paced story that hooks you in five minutes, you will probably be bored to tears within ten. It’s a movie for the patient souls who don't mind a little grit under their fingernails.

The whole thing feels like it’s being held together by duct tape and sheer ambition. Being the first feature out of Lebanon, you can practically see the director, Jordano Pidutti, sweating through the frame. It’s an Italian sensibility dropped into a Lebanese landscape, and the clash is wildly obvious.

Notes from the couch

Elias Mabruk is our guy, returning home like a ghost haunting his own life. The acting has this stiff, theatrical quality that makes you wonder if they were worried about the cameras running out of film. Sometimes he just stares at the horizon for an eternity, and you’re left wondering if he’s contemplating his past or just waiting for the lunch break.

There’s a specific scene involving a village square that goes on for about three minutes too long. It’s not dramatic, it’s just there. You can see a dog wandering in the background, completely unaware that it’s participating in a milestone of film history. That dog was the most honest performance in the room. 🐶

Comparing this to something like The Holy Mountain feels like a joke, but they both share that weird, experimental itch. Of course, this isn't surrealist art; it’s just a man trying to figure out how to put a story on a screen for the first time. It feels a bit like A Waiting Maid in its simplicity, but with a whole lot more sand and sun.

The pacing is a mess, honestly. It starts, it stops, it wanders off into the desert and forgets to come back for a while. You get these moments of genuine tenderness, followed by shots that look like they were filmed while everyone was having a nap. It’s not polished. It’s not professional. But it’s real in a way that modern stuff rarely manages to be.

• The lighting changes in the middle of a single conversation, which is hilarious.
• I think I spotted the same extra three times in different outfits.
• The ending just sort of happens, like the film ran out of electricity.

Don't go into this expecting a masterpiece. Go into it expecting to see the first shaky steps of a cinema industry. It’s imperfect, it’s awkward, and I’m glad I watched it instead of just reading about it on a database. Sometimes you just have to sit with the ghosts.