cinematography
Giovanni C. Lorusso
editing
Giovanni C. Lorusso
Valentina Andreoli
music
Katibeh Khamseh
sound
Daniela Bassani

with
Arafat Yasser Al Ali
Muhammad Ramzi Zayed
Jinen Al Ali
Jihad Khalaf Esa
Nour Amjad Al Nasim
M M Obama
Muhammad Esam Ghannam
Bissan Yasser Al Ali

producers
Giovanni C. Lorusso
Yasser Kamal Al Ali
production
Labo GCL
with the support of
Atelier Milano Film Network 2023

Italian and international
press office
Chiara Zanini
ufficio.stampa.zanini@gmail.com

The Gaza Building, a former PLO hospital, is a symbol of Palestinian survival in the refugee camp of Sabra (Beirut) North of Shatila camp. Across the building’s 11 floors, 11 year-old Arafat spends his time spying at his neighbour, destroying falling parts of the structure and training his dog. Together with his friend Muhammad they think of ways to explore the forbidden underground, where “there is only sex, drug and death.” Meanwhile everyone in the building is talking about the potentially fake story of a man that has just fallen off the 4th floor of the building, the cause being unknown.

2024 A Man Fell (doc)
2024 Song of All Ends (doc)

“This is a place where light is lost within its walls and nothing is able to reflect in here. Like a sponge, shadows absorb everything leaving only sharp, brief spaces of brightness. Within these spaces are confined the lives of the inhabitants of the building: an uninterrupted movement between islands of luminance. At nightfall all is abandoned to complete darkness. By then those islands of light become even rarer, more separated, indeed more isolated. And the shadows take fully over the air, until the 5 mosques surrounding the building rhythmically remind of the coming of a new day. A Man Fell was born out of chance. On my fourth journey to Lebanon, with the intent of discovering new aspects of the neighbourhood of Shatila, I was faced with unexpected changes in the socio-dynamics and many safe conditions were no longer available to continue my work there. Until I entered the Gaza Building and be welcomed by its tenants.” (Giovanni Lorusso)

Giovanni C. Lorusso is a filmmaker and photographer trained in literature at La Sapienza University of Rome, philosophy at the University of London and film directing at the Sydney Film School. He has over a decade of work experience as a cinematographer for various productions in Asia, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. His first feature film, Song of All Ends, was screened at Rotterdam IFFR 2024. Lorusso is an accredited member of the Australian Cinematographers Society.