Rita Hayek

The municipality of a small Breton village has decided to welcome a family of Ukrainian refugees. To their surprise, they receive Fayad family – coming from Syria. They thwart all the clichés that the French expected: they are friendly, refined, educated… So much so that, in this small, humming village, it is no longer clear which side the barbarians are on…

Beirut Hold’em depicts the life of Ziko, a 40-year old ex-con and petty gambler, and his three boyhood friends, in a seedy, lower-middle class district of Beirut. They’re fighting their way into a country on the edge of war and bankruptcy, where instability makes everyday life feel like Russian roulette, and sheer existence is yet another form of gambling.

Follows three interconnected stories in modern day Nicosia, Cyprus: a civil engineer is blamed for the collapse of a building; a teenage girl becomes involved in a dangerous sexual relationship; two radicalized Arab women plan out an Islamic terrorist attack.

Between Lazio, Taormina and Morocco is the story of Ettore, a young Italian soldier kidnapped in Lebanon after an act of insubordination. After several months of captivity, he is freed and finally returned to Italy. His home country waits for him with bated breath, ready to hail him as a hero. The army itself wants to present him in this capacity at the Taormina Film Festival. But the protagonist has only one wish: to disappear and leave the past behind. However, his expectations are not pandered to, and the soldier is entrusted to a TV writer whose job it is to prepare him for the show. And who knows, on stage Hector may discover a way to make peace with his past....

After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.