The poster for Lebanese drama DEAD DOG released ahead of its premiere at the 46th Cairo International Film Festival, featuring actors Chirine Karameh and Nida Wakim, who play Aida and Hakim, respectively. The festival is due to run from November 12th to the 21st.
 
In Sarah Francis’ film, we explore the fading embers of a relationship. Aida drives up to the Lebanese mountains and unlocks an empty family house. Only Walid, her husband, who has been living abroad for years, is not expecting to find her there. Temporarily reunited in the same space, they face the status of their lives together and apart. Is there anything left to be saved? Dead Dog is a measured dissection of a marriage that is simultaneously breathing and decomposing.
 
The poster perfectly conveys a sense that something just isn’t quite right beneath the tranquil facade of their relationship; Aida looks on ahead at the horizon’s expanse, as Walid rests carefully in her embrace.
 
The film is due to compete in the festival's Horizons Competition, following a world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It is also set to participate in the Lebanese Film Festival in France, the Festival Internacional de Cine de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, São Paulo Film Festival, and the Sarajevo Film Festival.
 
“With a calm visual rhythm, Lebanese artist Sarah Francis tells a tale that appears ordinary and commonplace—yet beneath the surface, which could itself seem just as mundane, lies a world full of ruptures, confusions, boredom, disappointments, oppression, and repressed or stifled desires,” said Nadim Jarjoura, writing for Al Araby.
 
Directed and written by Sarah Francis, the film is produced in tandem with Lara Abou Saifan; along with production companies Placeless Films, and the Red Sea Film Foundation, with Marine Vaillant on as a co-producer.
 
It stars Chirine Karameh, alongside Nida Wakim, with cinematography by Mark Khalife; editing by Zeina Aboul Hosn; sound by Ralph Atallah, Victor Bresse, and Lama Sawaya; and music by Rabih Gebeile. The film's global sales are handled by MAD World and is distributed regionally by MAD Distribution.
 
Lebanese filmmaker Sarah FRANCIS grew up and studied in Beirut. Her works often present sonic landscapes and visual tableaus that explore our ever-changing position within the world we inhabit. Oftentimes, the inner territory and the geographical one intertwine, as we reflect on beginnings, transitions, and the difference between the two.
 
Sarah’s first feature film, BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER (2013), premiered in the main competition of CPH:DOX. It then screened at numerous festivals and museums, such as Art of the Real’ Lincoln Center, Stedelijk Museum, DMZ Docs (South Korea), and received several international awards.
 
Her second feature, AS ABOVE SO BELOW (2020), premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival before touring worldwide, and her third feature, DEAD DOG premiered at Rotterdam.