In The Shadow of Beirut (Melbourne Documentary Film Festival) - Review

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Mon 01 Jul 2024 - Wed 31 Jul 2024

Directed by Garry Keane and Stephen Gerard Kelly, In The Shadow of Beirut is part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival which runs for the whole month of July (1-31) online, & In-Cinema from 17-31 July 2024. Check the website for some eye-opening, educational, and inspiring films on offer covering a range of subjects. All documentaries are geo-blocked to Australia! Once a doco is unlocked, you have 48 hours to complete your viewing (after you press play). If you would like to know more about the streaming platform, please see the Eventive FAQ page.

A country in the grip of its worst-ever economic crisis, a succession of corrupt governments and a broken political system, leaves its community struggling in impoverished neighbourhoods like Sabra and Shatila. However, they've been struggling long before and have been surviving on the margins for generations. They're the Lebanese nomadic community and families who escaped war in Syria. There are 30,000 of them crammed inside 1 square kilometre in the most lawless, poorest and dirtiest place in all of Beirut. It's a place where Lebanon's poorest citizens live alongside the original displaced Palestinian people.


The Shadow of Beirut weaves four compelling storylines together, stories symbolic of the hundreds of thousands of others who fight for survival in the most diverse country in the Middle East with the highest per capita refugee numbers in the world. A cry from the people is that they just have to keep going to survive. What else can they do?



In The Shadow of Beirut is a tough watch. It will make you want to rid yourself of everything you had that was not necessary to sustain life and income, and give it all to them. It felt indulgent having unnecessary items adorning hearth and home while so many were struggling. Focusing on just four families was exhausting enough going through life with them - I don't know that I could have handled seeing the rest of the community without my heart breaking into many pieces. Being a fly on the wall was not an easy job when you wanted to break into the screen to save them all. Despite the hardships witnessed, the story is beautifully told and filmed. It's emotive, gut-wrenching and the characters will etch themselves on your heart.

The Syrians who fled to Lebanon have no entitlement. No medical, no jobs, no legal papers and definitely no government handouts. It's almost impossible to imagine how they would survive in such an environment. Heightened to survive, desperation on their tail, they go about creating this sub-culture that operates as well as it can, with no handouts, no sewerage system and worse. From dusk to dawn, little kids work all day - forward-thinking parents worried about their children not getting an education, worried their children's outlook will be shaped by the only thing they know - hardship. Parents watching their child suffer because they're not entitled to health services and can't go to the hospital. A whole family working all day for one meal - to start over again the next day. As hard as it is to learn of everyone's story, it's a compelling watch, and one not to be missed.

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