Lebanese filmmaker Ely Dagher shared his love-hate relationship with his hometown, Beirut, through his animated short film entitled, "Waves '98." As a matter of fact, "Waves '98" is one of the entries for the short animated film category at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
The website called City Lab was able to get in touch with Dagher and discuss about his film. While Dagher spent most of his life in Beirut, he had a complicated relation with the city.
"Beirut is an amazing yet harsh city that's full of contrasts," Dagher said. "I've had some of the best and worst experiences of my life there."
According to the film's official website, the film follows the life story of a teenager named Omar. The setting was in 1998. Omar grew up in the suburbs which means he has never visited other parts of the city or even crossed its borders. Given that, Omar is looking forward to a more exciting and promising life that Beirut has to offer.
Omar took a giant leap of faith and went on to explore the depth of the city. But then, as he takes on his journey in the city life, he felt isolated from his reality. He felt a certain degree of alienation in his new venture. As said in the synopsis, "Omar finds himself struggling to keep his attachments, his sense of home..."
What makes this short film more interesting is that it closely follows Dagher's experiences with his home country. It was also in 1998 when Dagher learned more about Beirut following the Lebanese Civil War. As said, the whole concept of the narrative film sees Dagher's efforts to understand how his relationship with the city and its life changed over time. And at the same time it "juxtaposed with the narrative of a teenager's exciting discovery of this segregated city."
Meanwhile, "Waves '98" won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the "Cannes Film Festival" in 2015 for short film category.