One Night Stand

Mark Lotfy, Noor Abed / Palestine, Egypt / 2019 / World Premiere / 24 min.

synopsis

The film is based on the filmmakers’ real encounter with an unknown European one night in a bar in Beirut in 2017. It was a man on the road to join the Kurdish militia fighting in the war against the Islamic state on the territory of Syria. The conversation was secretly recorded on a cellphone and serves as the script for animated modeled situations and reconstructions of that night. In addition to a fascinating probe into the thinking of a man who is willing to sacrifice his life for the struggle for freedom, the film is also a formal polemic on the apparent authenticity of the documentary and the possibilities of representation of reality by means of simulations and modeled situations.

“War today is a constant state of preparation for absolute destruction beyond the frontline. We no longer have the means of recognising it, nor distinguishing between a soldier and a citizen.” M. Lotfy, N. Abed

biography

Noor Abed (1988) comes from Jerusalem and studied in New York, Los Angeles, Beirut and Palestine. She creates multimedia works on the boundary of performance, film and new media, in which she often includes contemporary dance and theater.

Mark Lotfy (1981) was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and is an experimental filmmaker and producer. He explores the boundary between fictional narratives and documentary film, new media art and internet memes.