REPRESSION

Short / Development Funding

Sweden, Lebanon \ Arabic \ 14 minutes

Director: Mike Malajalian
Producer: Abed Lotfi
Production Company: Sarascenes

Synopsis:

At the height of the Lebanese Civil War, a soldier in his 30’s deserts the army to return to his wife who’s been waiting for him in their mountainside home. Upon his return, his paranoia is evident; suspecting that his wife is keeping secrets and that he’s being spied on, about to be dragged back to war. At midnight he discovers his wife is pregnant and is enraged by her story that a forest spirit impregnated her. To unlock this mystery he heads to the woods nearby where he comes face to face with the lurking evil spirit. Repression is the 2nd chapter in a trilogy focused on the psychological aftermath of the civil war. The first part, “Reprisal”, garnered great praise and several awards worldwide.

Mike Malajalian

Mike Malajalian is the Lebanese Armenian director behind such short films as “La Femme aux Raisins” (2011) “Gli occhi di Aldo” (2014) and “Reprisal” (2017) all of which gleaned several international film awards. After two bachelor degrees in film directing and graphic design from The Lebanese University’s Institute of Fine Arts he mastered in the latter. He currently teaches visual communication and design at the Antonine University and works with Abbout Productions as a Production Coordinator.

Abed Lotfi

After a bachelor’s degree in Film & TV Production from Beirut’s Institute of Fine Arts in 2011, Loutfi moved to Sweden for his master’s in documentary film. His short films “The Pendant” and “Life in a Drop of Ink” have screened at various festivals including MAFF. Having worked as a production coordinator and post-producer on several Swedish productions such as “The Nile Hilton Incident”, “Get Ready With Me”, and “Allt Jag Inte Minns”, he started Sarascenes, a production company with a focus on Arabic films.