My Family and the Explosion

 

Director & Producer

Mahmoud Kaabour

 

Subtitles/Transcript:

Nicole

00:19 When I came home the day after,

this staircase was covered in my man’s blood.

00:33 I called, “Naji, Naji, answer me!”

There was so much destruction.

I tripped on his leg. He was lying down with no shoes.

These doors were on the floor, his head smashed under this metal.

01:01 Then I started screaming: “Please help me, my man is badly injured!”

People could see me, but they were all covered in blood.

I had thought we were the only injured ones and the explosion was right

outside.

01:33 I stepped on the balcony to watch. They loaded him on a moped and

drove him to the hospital.

01:46 We are a family of three, living a good life until recently. My husband is

an online fitness instructor. I work at a bank. Our daughter is ten and goes to

school. Yasmina and Naji are who I live for. I breathe through them.

02:37 I often wish if all three of us died instantly together.

No one ought to survive alone, because we are too close.

I live through these feelings when I fear that he might die and leave us behind.

03:07 Our daughter was outside Beirut at my sister’s home. But she learned

that the explosion was in our area.

03:27 They might claim that the buildings are inhabitable, just to make us

vacate. This is how little we trust them. Assessing my property, they may claim

it’s safe when it’s not, or the opposite! We can’t believe anything they say.

03:51 One of our cars is badly damaged. People are calling me to buy it for

cheap. Maybe they found my number by running the plate number

somewhere. Four calls already! Even that sale I will decline.

The destruction has been huge. To make our home liveable again we need to

invest big. I can’t see how we can. Shall I pray to God for this as well? God

doesn’t have cash money.

04:31 I can’t borrow because this time, everyone is so screwed. No one has

been spared from this tragedy in Lebanon, rich or poor!

The demonstrators

04:45 Down with the government! They are all bastards! Down with the

government!

Nurse

05:03 Great that you can open an eye!

Let’s remove the serum.

Nicole

I can’t imagine how he feels...

Nurse

05:27 Are you dizzy?

Hold this one like a cane.

Nicole

05:38 He can’t move, needs help with everything! He was so strong.

05:59 Pity her, Yasmina has not seen him in two weeks.

Yasmina

07:20 I am most comfortable when I am by his side. That’s when I stop to worry

about him. Usually I am afraid something will happen again. Before school

resumed, I used to be with him the whole time. When mom went back to work,

I took charge of his medicine and always hugged him.

Naji

07:53 Now I have lower back pain, maybe from being in bed over a month. And

a huge pain in the head. I feel this head is not mine, as if someone planted

something between my shoulders. It feels empty on the inside. There is a deep

dent going through, from this side to the other. Also through my brow. I have

trouble remembering things. I don’t recall the explosion or where I was! No

recollection of how I was taken to hospital or what followed…

Nicole

08:59 Mar Mikhael area got affected in its stone and people. It became empty

and naked. It looks wretched in its broken buildings. It’s as if someone raped a

body made of stone. That’s how devastating their act was.

Our government has destroyed us, killed us. It destroyed my husband’s body

and my daughter’s life. On top, they want us to learn being beggars! How to

open our hands to NGOs.

They have trampled on our dignity.

10:24 I will help you don’t worry.

10:30 We keep finding more damage unfortunately. Think of the houses with

open fronts, disaster is still coming their way. I fear the day it will rain. Our

houses will flood. I am better off than others, look at their front!

Yasmina

10:59 I found this, mom.

Nicole

11:01 Yes, throw that as well.

I could see our things scattered. The bathroom robe was down there. My

neighbor’s stuff as well. That green thing is my own curtain. Now I feel numb.

11:19 First couple of days were so hard, but now I am numb. During the

banking crisis, we thought it couldn’t get any worse. We were just emptying the

kitchen and found so many food boxes! We were always afraid of starvation.

Instead, we were killed by the explosion.

 

 

Titles and lower thirds:

00:02

On August 4th 2020, Beirut’s port was rocked by the largest

non-atomic explosion ever.

This story is about its lasting ripples.

00:16

Nicole

01:39

My Family & The Explosion

06:48

The family moves into a furnished apartment indefinitely.

11:54

 

Credits

 

Director & Producer

Mahmoud Kaabour

With

Nicole Torbey

Naji Makhlouf

Yasmina Makhlouf

Camera

Talal Khoury

Carine Torbey

Pauline Maroun

Sound

Rayan Al-Obeidyine

Tatiana Dahdah

Editing

Ibrahim Nashaat

Post-production Services

RMG 247 Productions

Production Management

Farah Naboulsi

Joanna Al Kai

Commissioning Editor

Jos de Putter

Special Thanks

Denise Holloway

Emil Pellicer

Ilja Willems

Ahmad Ghannoum

Florian Schewe

Jascha Hannover

Derren Lawford