'The Sea Ahead' is the feature debut of Ely Dagher, who has won the Palm d’Or award for Best Short Film.
Lebanese Film The Sea Ahead, directed by Ely Dagher, will have its world premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival within The Directors’ Fortnight section. The event will take place from July 7-17.
The film is the feature debut of Ely Dagher, who previously won the Palm d’Or award for Best Short Film, which was the first Lebanese film to ever receive this award.
The Sea Ahead received several awards during its development, including Best Film in Post-production at the Final Cut In Venice workshop; CineGouna platform’s award for Best Project in Development Phase; Financial Award from Drosos Foundation, in addition to grants from AFAC-Arab Funds For Arts and Culture, Doha Film Institute, Red Sea Fund among others.
The film revolves around a young woman that walks out of the Beirut airport alone and makes her way back home to her parents’ house in the middle of the night. Having been abroad and out of touch for a while, Jana seems to be leaving a bad experience behind and taking refuge. Haunting pressures to fit back into the family dynamics as well as revealing details of her life abroad weigh heavy on her. Feeling cornered, her fears and anxieties resurface, leading her to reconnect and find solace in another part of her Beirut life that she had forsaken. A life that is for her as familiar and foreign now as it ever was.
Directed and written by Ely Dagher, The Sea Ahead stars Manal Issa, Yara Abou Haidar, Rabih El Zaher and Roger Azar. The film is produced by Andolfi (Arnaud Dommerc) in association with Beachside and co-produced by Abbout Productions, Wrong Men, Beaver and Beaver. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.
