Trabolsi

Synopsis

“Tripoli is a tired city, it’s an exhausted city, it’s a beautiful, exhausted city” says Khalid, who together with his friends Mariam and Nazih navigate their lives in a marginalized city, which has the reputation of being violent, dangerous and poor. Despite unfavourable conditions, these three young people continue dreaming and taking small steps to getting closer to their dreams by volunteering for the local NGO We Love. They aspire to overcome the struggles of history and shape the future of a city they love. Trabolsi is a window to Lebanon’s second biggest, forgotten city, which rarely sees visitors. The title, Trabolsi, is Arabic for something or someone from Tripoli. It also means “My Tripoli”. The entire documentary was filmed with a smartphone.

Director’s Biography

Ina Schebler holds a M.A. in visual and media anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. With a background in international relations, she is particularly interested in combining political topics with anthropological methods and explorations of visual representation. In recent years, she has especially focussed her work on aspects of forced migration and grassroots peace building. Her films Between Beats and Code (2018) and Planes (2017) have been shown at film festivals and the latter also received the German Generations Film Award.

Filmography

Planes (2017) 3 min.:

Screened at German International Ethnographic Film Festival and at BundesFestivalFilm

Awards: German Generations Film Award

Between Beats and Code (2018) 6 min.:

Screened at Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival)

Stills