A movie still of Tramontane (Rabih). Courtesy DIFF
A movie still of Tramontane (Rabih). Courtesy DIFF
A movie still of Tramontane (Rabih). Courtesy DIFF
A movie still of Tramontane (Rabih). Courtesy DIFF

Diff: Tramontane director Vatche Boulghourjian says film is full of metaphors about modern Lebanon


Kaleem Aftab
  • English
  • Arabic

There is an uncanny resemblance between Tramontane director Vatche Boulghourjian and tennis star Boris Becker. "Noone has said that to me for a while!" the first-time feature film director explains. "But I used to get that all the time."

Well just as Becker burst onto the scene by winning his first Wimbledon, Boulghourjian has made an ace with his own first feature film. Tramontane is a story about the past coming back to haunt you and arrives at DIFF after its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.

Young blind musician Rabih (Barakat Jabbour, who himself is a blind violinist and singer) must get a passport so he can travel with his Lebanese choir to play in Europe. Rabih is informed that his identity papers are false. From there his life unravels as he discovers his mother (Julia Kassar) is not who he thought she was, and how his own past is tied to the Lebanese civil war.

“One of the inspirations of this film is a theologian called Professor John Hull,” says the 40-year-old director. “He lost his sight and wrote about what it’s like to be blind and how blindness affected his relationships to others around him and his memory.”

“In one paper he talks about how blindness is commonly misused in literature to describe how someone is morally misled or in denial, so we come to this film where we have a blind man who has more clarity of mind and a goal to search for a truth. Even though he has a physical handicap those around him have a spiritual handicap.”

Boulghourjian's own past as a documentarian comes through in the Tramontane's realist aesthetic. The film includes many metaphors about life in Lebanon today, one of which is the importance of a passport: "It is a form of identification issued by a government that gives you your right to belong to an administrative space," says Boulghourjian. "It's about how this administrative crisis turns into an existential crisis, somehow."

Tramontane is showing at Souk Madinat Arena on December 9 at 8.15pm and Vox Cinemas at Mall of the Emirates on December 10 at 2.45pm

For details go to www.dubaifilmfest.com

TOURNAMENT INFO

Opening fixtures:
Friday, Oct 5

8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Paktia Panthers

Saturday, Oct 6
4pm: Nangarhar Leopards v Kandahar Knights
8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Balkh Legends

Tickets
Tickets can be bought online at https://www.q-tickets.com/apl/eventlist and at the ticket office at the stadium.

TV info
The tournament will be broadcast live in the UAE on OSN Sports.

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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  • Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
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Dust storm

  • Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
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  • Duration: Can linger for days
  • Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
  • Source: Can be carried from distant regions