Beirut: The Encounter

Overview

Zeina (Nadine Acoury) is a Catholic student whose good friend Haidar (Haithem El Amine), a Muslim, has always been particularly close. After a futile attempt to get together (he gets caught in traffic), they each decide to make an audio tape trying to explain, based on their own ideas, why there continues to be fighting in Lebanon now, in 1977, and why they are against it. Zeina is about to leave for the United States and Haidar is to meet her at the airport, where they will exchange their tapes. Alas, fate intervenes because when he arrives early at the airport, he is harassed by someone looking to prey on gullible refugees and he gets so angry that he grabs a taxi out of there, throwing his tape away as he does so. When Zeina arrives and realizes he is not there, she is broken-hearted. In a strange twist at the end, the cast and the director (Borhane Alaouie) have a discussion as to whether or not the character of Haidar should kill himself.