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In the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon lies refugee camp Majdal Anjar, where a small community of the country’s approximately 1.2 million Syrian refugees live.

Synopsis

In the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon lies refugee camp Majdal Anjar, where a small community of the country’s approximately 1.2 million Syrian refugees live. Award-winning director (Shape of the Moon; Position Among the Stars) Leonard Retel Helmrich spent a year-and-a-half following a handful of lively and resilient characters: a love-sick young man, eager to marry despite his elders’ sharp discouragement; a conflicted teacher, passionate about her work at the camp but under pressure to return to her husband and the dangers that await her in Syria; and a family torn apart when a husband marries a second wife. Using his renowned single shot technique, Helmrich’s incredibly intimate film captures daily life for those whose futures are postponed by war.

“The Long Season is very different from any films I have seen due to its incredible access. I am shocked at what the filmmakers were able to capture. The film does a great job at showing the dangers in Syria and struggles that refugee families go through.” - Bassam Khawaja, Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch

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Credits

Leonard Retel Helmrich

Director

Leonard Retel Helmrich was born in the Netherlands in 1959. He graduated from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1986. Leonard shoots as well as directs all his own films and is best known for a philosophy and approach he calls “Single Shot Cinema” which involves long takes with a camera orbiting the subjects. Above all in his films it is the framing and movement of the camera that captures and leads the emotions of the audience.