“When war begins, the builders have to leave to another country, waiting until the war has swept through their homeland. Then they return to rebuild it.”

A portrait of workers in exile. The director creates an essay documentary of Syrian construction workers building new skyscrapers in Beirut on the ruins caused by the Lebanese civil war. At the same time their own houses are being bombed in Syria. A Curfew prohibits them from leaving the construction site after work. Every night in their pit below the skyscraper the news from their homeland and the memories of the war chase them. Mute and imprisoned in the cement underground, they must endure until the new day arrives where the hammering and welding drowns out their nightmares.

This film is screened as part of London Migration Film Festival. The goal of the festival is to portray the diversity, nuance and subjective experience within migration – including and beyond the refugee experience – in order to restore the dignity and humanity inherent within it. It challenges the rhetoric that overwhelmingly reduces migrants to enemies or victims.

For more information about the festival and tickets click HERE.