ZIAD RAHBANI AMONG US

The 36th edition of the Carthage Film Festival pays tribute to Lebanese composer, playwright, actor, and journalist Ziad Rahbani (1956–2025). His name remains inseparable from the key figures of the New Arab Cinema, both as an actor and a composer, having collaborated with filmmakers such as Farouk Beloufa, Randa Chahal, Qasim Hawal, and Maroun Baghdadi. Rahbani’s contributions reflected a unique aesthetic that combined artistic sensitivity with deep social and political engagement. He was among the most influential voices to merge art and activism, music and awareness, theatre and cinema, turning creativity itself into an act of resistance against stagnation and ugliness. Alongside his musical and theatrical works, Ziad Rahbani appeared as an actor in Nahla (1979) by Algerian filmmaker Farouk Beloufa and The Kite (2003) by Lebanese director Randa Chahal. He also composed the scores for several films, including Nahla, The Kite, Return to Haifa, Proceedings of the Next Year, Beirut: The Last Home Movie, A Civilized People, and Shadows of Silence. The Lebanese and Arab artistic scene bid farewell to Ziad Rahbani on July 26, 2025, at the age of 69. He leaves behind a musical and human legacy that will remain deeply rooted in collective memory, marked by aesthetic beauty, intellectual depth, and critical spirit.
As part of this tribute, the 36th edition of the Carthage Film Festival presents a selection of films in which Rahbani participated, celebrating an exceptional artist whose music captured the pulse and pain of Beirut, whose words reflected the bitterness and irony of reality, and whose presence embodied the sincerity of an intellectual devoted to freedom, justice, and beauty.