Single-channel video installation, 7 min. Arabic.
A man prays in the Muslim tradition while his children try to distract him by climbing on his back. This is a recurring scenario that many try to film at home and upload to YouTube. The film reenacts this script to show the tender side of a father praying.
Akram Zaatari was born in Saida, southern Lebanon in 1966. He studied Architecture at the American University in Beirut and Media Studies at the New School in New York. He works as a performance and video artist, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and curator, and he lives in Beirut. Zaatari co-founded Beirut’s Arab Image Foundation. His works are shown all over the world in solo and group exhibitions and are now found in the collections of many museums (Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Global Arts, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Arco Foundation, Madrid; TBA21, Vienna). Along with his artistic work, Zaatari teaches at numerous universities at home and abroad.
Production Akram Zaatari. Production company Akram Zaatari (Beirut, Lebanon). Written and directed by Akram Zaatari. Cinematography Marc Khalife. Editing Ali El Darsa. Sound design Raed Younan. Sound Tatiana El Dahdah. With Mohammad Al Jarabi'a.
Films
Selection: 1997: Al-Sharit Bi-Khayr / All Is Well on the Border (45 min.). 2003: Al-Yaoum / This Day (86 min.). 2005: Fo Haza al-Bayt / In This House (13 min.). 2008: Tabiah Samitah / Nature Morte (10 min). 2010: Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright (10 min.). 2011: Hia wa Houa / Her + Him (33 min.). 2013: The End of Time (14 min.), Letter to A Refusing Pilot (34 min.). 2014: Beirut Exploded Views (30 min.). 2015: Thamaniat wa ushrun laylan wa bayt min al-sheir / Twenty-Eight Nights and a Poem (120 min., Forum 2015). 2018: The Script.
Photo: © Akram Zaatari
