And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads

It's Independence Day in Lebanon: three women who've never met before are on the same bus heading to visit a prison situated in a remote area of the country. Traveling through an arid landscape littered with mines and decapitated dreams, the journey transforms into the women's quest for their own independence.

Lebanese filmmaker Dima El-Horr moved to Paris several years ago. Among the friends who stayed at home is the artist Sirvat Fazlian, whom she regularly visits in Beirut until the failed revolution of 2019, the COVID lockdown, the devastating port explosion and finally the dramatic economic crisis put a temporary end to their meetings. So the director decides to give her conversations with Siro a cinematic form.

Zeinab, 23, is a rebellious Muslim Shi’a woman who works in an association that grants micro-credit loans to people in precarious financial circumstances in the popular areas of Beirut. Each month, Zeinab is evaluated on the number of micro-credit contracts approved. For the need of her work, Zeinab browses the city aboard a grey scooter that will become pink, defying her male colleagues who, because they adopted the scooter as mode of transportation, realize higher turnover than girls.