Inspired by the Vietnamese revolution, a call to transform every Arab capital into a 'Hanoi for the Palestinian Revolution' echoed far and wide in the 1960s and 1970s. This documentary delves into encounters between the Vietnamese and Palestinian experience. It traces remains of these encounters in today’s Beirut, the Arab capital which most vividly lived out this notion of an 'Arab Hanoi' – from the outbreak of the civil war in 1975 until the withdrawal of Palestinian fighters in 1982. My Heart Beats Only for Her focuses on the story of Hatem Hatem, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan Hanoi. Born in south Lebanon and affiliated with the Fatah political movement, Hatem fought for its brigades. After the Israeli invasion, he lost his connection with Fatah, returning to his native village and distancing himself from political activity. Throughout the film, Hatem’s son Hassan examines the memory of Fatah's 'Vietnamese moment' in Lebanon. He travels between Beirut, Dubai, and Hanoi, contemplating these three cities’ very different, and yet intersecting, relationships at the level of revolution, economy, war and urban development.
Born in Beirut in 1959, Mohamad Soueid is a writer and filmmaker. He is the author of several books in Arabic about Lebanese and Arab cinema such as Suspended Cinema: Lebanese Civil War Films (Beirut: Institute of Arab Researches, 1986), History of Movie Theaters in Old Beirut (Beirut: An-Nahar, 1996) and Literature and Screen-writing in Arab Countries (published within the framework of a seminar on the subject which was part of the Arab Cinema Festival organized by the Arab World Institute, Paris, 1995). As a film-director, he was responsible for various productions including his first film Absence (1990) and his autobiographical trilogy of full-length documentaries Tango of Yearning (1998), Nightfall (2000) and Civil War (2002). For several years, he was a Film Professor at St. Joseph University - Beirut. Winner of the Best Director Prize at the Cairo Radio and Television Festival in 1996 for his film Roses of Passion and the Best Documentary Director Prize at the Beirut International Film Festival in Beirut in 2000 for Tango of Yearning, today, Mohamad Soueid continues to work in the field of film criticism while making his own films.
Addresses and Contacts
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Beirut Art Center Corniche El Nahr Achrafieh Tel.: +9611397018
Mob.: +96170262112
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