Film Archive

Massacre (Massaker)

Between September 16 and 18, 1982, for two nights and three days, the killers of Sabra and Shatila went about their heinous crimes. In the end, they had murdered between 1,000 and 3,000 Palestinian civilians, predominantly women, children and old people. The precise number of victims – both those killed and those missing – is not known to this very day. The perpetrators primarily originated from the ranks of the Forces Libanaises.

Massacre is – both in contents and aesthetically – a psycho-political study of perpetrators, who participated in the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, both on orders and on their own personal initiative. The film intertwines the mental dispositions of the killers with their political environment and broaches the phenomenon of collective violence through their accounts.

Monika Borgmann was born in 1963 and studied Arab Philology and Political Sciences in Bonn and Damascus. Since 1988, she has been working as a freelance journalist for radio and press. In 2001, she co-founded the production company Umam Production.
 
Lokman Slim was born in 1962 in Lebanon and studied Philosophy in France. In 1990, he founded the Arab-language publishing house Dar al Jadid in Beirut. In 2001, he co-founded Umam Production.
 
Hermann Theissen was born in 1954 and studied Germanic Studies, Social Science, Theater, Film and Television Sciences. Since 1987, he has been a senior editor in the features department of Deutschlandfunk and contributes to numerous cultural publications.
 

Genre History
Category Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2004
Director Monika Borgmann, Lokman Slim, Hermann Theissen
Screenplay Monika Borgmann, Lokman Slim, Hermann Theissen
Director of Photography Nina Menkes
Editors Anne De Mo, Bernd Euscher
Producer Joachim Ortmanns
Production Company Lichtblick Film- & Fernsehproduktion/Cologne, in co-production with Umam Production/Beirut, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion/Zurich, Unlimited/Schiltigheim, in cooperation with WDR/Cologne, Swiss Television SF/Zurich
Length 98 min, 2,500 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.85
Original Version Arabic
Subtitled Versions English, French, German
Sound Technology Dolby SR
Festival Screenings Berlin 2005 (Panorama), Nyon 2005, Vienna 2005, Fidmarseille 2005, IDFA Amsterdam 2005, Festroia 2005, Durban 2005, La Rochelle 2005, Melbourne 2005, Helsinki 2005, Doc BsAs Buenos Aires 2005, Lisbon 2005, Leeds 2005, Vilnium 2005, Denver 2005, Gijon 2005, Copenhagen 2005, Dubai 2005, Dusiburg 2005, among others
Awards FIPRESCI Award Berlin 2005, Pris SRG SSR idée suisse Nyon 2005, Special Mention Fidmarseille 2005, Grand Reportagem Lisbon 2005
With backing from Filmstiftung NRW, MEDIA, Communauté Urbaine de Strasbourg

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email: info@lichtblick-film.de
http://www.lichtblick-film.de