غروب بيروت (The Sun Sets On Beirut)
2022 · 18m · Lebanon
Directed by Daniela Stephan
Genres: documentary, drama
Tones: melancholic, tender
In the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, a young woman named Mounia searches the devastated city for her lost cat, accompanied by her best friend Ghady, who is more interested in flirting with a British journalist. A docufiction that captures the conflicted emotions of a generation of Lebanese caught between homeland and personal dreams.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Docufiction about searching for a lost cat in post-blast Beirut, with the friend hitting on a journalist instead of helping — that misalignment of grief and flirtation is the honest detail. Scooter-level perspective sounds right.
Scooter-level docufiction through a post-blast city, anchored to a personal loss, recalls Lebanese filmmakers like Wissam Charaf — the small object (a missing cat) as load-bearing metaphor for collective devastation. The form fits the wound.
A scooter-level docufiction shot in post-explosion Beirut, with the director processing her own lost cat — that proximity to the source material gives the 17:35 runtime its specific texture. The Vimeo upload is modest (2.4K views) but the conceit is sound.
Reviews
Writer-director Daniela Stephan cleverly uses a docufiction approach to craft a poignant narrative that reflects the conflicted emotions of a generation of Lebanese caught between their homeland, its political turmoil, and their own personal dreams.
The result is both an immersion into the city's resilient spirit — as it tries to pick itself back up and move forward — and an intimate encounter with its community in recovery.
Festivals
- Encounters Film Festival 2025
- Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2023
- Tampere Film Festival
- Les Nuits Méditerranéennes du Court Métrage, Grand Prix
- Olhares do Mediterrâneo International Women's Film Festival, Best Student Film
- Beirut International Women's Film Festival, Audience Vote Award