Sector Zero, the directorial debut from Nadim Mishlawi, is a documentary about the derelict area of Karantina and its peculiar history. On the outskirts of Beirut, between the city’s port and its densely-populated centre, lies the notorious, now derelict, area of Karantina.  Through an exploration of this neglected urban wasteland, Sector Zero examines the area’s peculiar history, using it as a metaphor for Lebanon’s troubled past. 

Tracing the area’s origins back to the Ottoman-built Quarantine Facility after which the area was named, while following its evolution from being a vacant plot of land to a dense, multinational ghetto, Sector Zero analyses the persistence of this urban void in modern-day Lebanon and how its dark history mirrors Lebanon’s erratic progression as a country in search of its national identity.  In this sense, Sector Zero is not so much a documentation as it is an investigation into the dark corners of modern Lebanon’s collective memory in an attempt to discover how much of who we are is mostly based on that part of ourselves we have chosen to forget.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Nadim Mishlawi.

2011 | 1h 4min

Language: Arabic with English subtitles.

Partners: Abbout Productions