We are happy to be presenting The Long Season in partnership with Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
In the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon lies refugee camp Majdal Anjar, where a small community of the country’s approximately 1.2 million Syrian refugees live. Award-winning director (Shape of the Moon; Position Among the Stars) Leonard Retel Helmrich spent a year-and-a-half following a handful of lively and resilient characters: a love-sick young man, eager to marry despite his elders’ sharp discouragement; a conflicted teacher, passionate about her work at the camp but under pressure to return to her husband and the dangers that await her in Syria; and a family torn apart when a husband marries a second wife. Using his renowned single shot technique, Helmrich’s incredibly intimate film captures daily life for those whose futures are postponed by war.
“The Long Season is very different from any films I have seen due to its incredible access. I am shocked at what the filmmakers were able to capture. The film does a great job at showing the dangers in Syria and struggles that refugee families go through.” – Bassam Khawaja, Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch