The Box Set: A Landmark Edition of Restored Films
Published in February 2024 byLes Mutins de Pangée in collaboration with theAssociation Jocelyne Saab, this DVD box set is a major event in the rediscovery of the filmmaker's work. It brings together fifteen documentaries made by Jocelyne Saab between 1974 and 1982, all fully restored in both image and sound by the Association Jocelyne Saab.
This edition is the result of a vast restoration project initiated in 2019, which involved the training of a dozen technicians in Beirut and France. The box set was launched to coincide with the first complete retrospective of Jocelyne Saab's films in France, organized in Marseille in February 2024.
All the films are subtitled into French, English, Arabic and Spanish. Most of them are originally in French with Arabic dialogues, but some of them have English or Arabic voice over.
A Journey Through the Heart of the Arab World
The box set offers a cinematic journey through the most incandescent political hotspots of the 1970s and early 1980s: Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran, and the Western Sahara. As a war reporter, Jocelyne Saab defied the conventions of television journalism to assert herself as a free and sensitive documentary filmmaker.
The fifteen films in the collection document the political upheavals of the Mashreq, Israel's imperial abuses, and the devastating consequences of the Lebanese Civil War, forming an "indispensable cinematographic memory" for understanding the issues facing Lebanon and the region. This work is the expression of a "documented, uncompromising cinema," imbued with the "poetry of a reality" that too often has been ignored.
Content and Features
The box set is a rich and comprehensive edition, including:
- 15 films by Jocelyne Saab (1974–1982) on 3 DVDs, totaling over8 hours of film.
- A48-page booklet providing context for the films.
- Films presented in theiroriginal versions with subtitles in French, Arabic, English, and Spanish.
- The box set also includes a bonus film:Nahla ou la ville qui sombre, a 1979 feature by Algerian director Farouk Beloufa, which includes a report by Jocelyne Saab on its making.
- The booklet features illustrations byLamia Ziadé, author ofMa très grande mélancolie arabe.
Press coverage[c]
- Elisabeth Lequeret, « Jocelyne Saab, le regard foudroyé » –Les Cahiers du cinéma, 17 novembre 2023. Un article majeur saluant l'urgence et la liberté d'écriture de ses documentaires, en particulier dans les films de la trilogie de Beyrouth. Il est publié à l'occasion de la rétrospective intégrale et de la sortie du coffret.
- Sabyl Ghoussoub, « Il était une fois le Beyrouth de Jocelyne Saab » –L'Orient-Le Jour, 2 mars 2024. Un article de fond sur l'ouvrageLe livre pour sortir au jour de Jocelyne Saab, qui mentionne le lancement du coffret et le contexte de la restauration des films.
- Collectif, « Beyrouth se souvient de Jocelyne Saab » –L'Orient-Le Jour, 14 mars 2024. Un article détaillant les journées consacrées à l'œuvre de la cinéaste à Beyrouth, où le coffret a été lancé.
