All Roads Lead To Rome

Country: Lebanon-Egypt

Rntime: 100 min

Synopsis

Chady is a famous actor in his thirties. He is experimenting an existential crisis. His problems are not metaphysical, they are related to the mediocrity in filmmaking, to the non-professionalism of the people he is working with, to the hypocrisy of society, to the interference of his mother and other strangers in his personal life…

An existential crisis he is trying to make his way through, when he receives the news of his selection to an international movie. He is shortlisted with another Italian actor for the young pope part and he will have to go meet the pope who will have the final saying. 

He decides to hole up, getting away from his hectic life, in the heart of Kannoubine, where he lived his happiest days at his grandparents’ house, when he was a kid.

He starts his journey at Samira’s restaurant, first encounter with a different world, a world he knew so well, but then he evolved so far from. A world where we are close to nature, where people know him, love him but still can talk truly and simply to him. As he continues his pilgrimage, he almost hits a young girl riding a bicycle, loses control of his car and ends up in a ditch.  He gets off his car furious to find out that the damages are limited to a burst tire and that the young lady he avoided killing is just beautiful. Embarrassed with the flat tire and dazzled by the obvious ignorance of the young lady of who he is, he gets spellbound when a bunch of nuns end up changing his tire. They are four strong, bubbly, funny nuns. They are outspoken and insist on hosting Chadi in their monastery, where Diamand, the beautiful cyclist resides.

Chady ends up accepting the invitation and here starts a journey of laughter, discoveries, love and connections to nature, to people, to his true self and to Diamand.

Diamand, he finds out is a bright young woman, who was working in an acquisition holding in France.

One day, she was faced with the dramatic consequences of the acquisition and liquidation of a familial firm. 

That led her to quit her job and return to her motherland to find a new meaning to her life. They meet at a point where she denigrates ultra liberalism and ambition and is in the earthly heaven, Qannoubine to get away of it all and maybe create with the villagers an alternative commercial model while he was there to rest and go further on the trail of his personal ambition from national to international actor. 

The four nuns and Diamand lead Chadi to a real transformation while changing themselves and when Chadi’s appointment with the pope is set and he found out his car was stolen with the passport in it, he rather accepts his fate while Diamand pushes him to fight for his dream.

He ends up, taking the plane with the nuns going to Rome for their annual spiritual retreat, disguised as a nun using the passport of the afraid to fly nun…

Director / Producer : Lara Saba

Since her college years, Lara Saba grabbed every opportunity to acquire a solid experience in filmmaking, working as a director or assistant director on series, commercials and movies. In 1998 she signed her first film, “Passage”, acclaimed by the Lebanese press. Besides different jobs in filmmaking, she tackled another facet of cinematography; documentaries,

directing “Suspended Return” (UNDP Documentary Prize), “Death Fields”, “Cinecaravane”, “Shattered Memories”… “Beirut, Truth & Versions” (awarded Best editing at the Brussels International Film Festival) 2013, “Blind Intersections”, awarded best movie at the Mabrouk and Malmo Film Festival, awarded Best Actor at the Brussels International Independent Film festival (FIFI) was the Lebanese entry to the Academy Awards Best Foreign Film section and was nominated in more than 20 international festivals.

In other words, she is a passionate filmmaker, a true storyteller with a poignant expression.