Homage to Lokman Slim – Massacre

Lokman Slim - political activist and commentator, founder of publishing house Dar al-Jadeed, filmmaker, and co-founder with his wife Monika Borgmann of the Umam Foundation set up to document and research the history of Lebanon - was assassinated on 4 February 2021.

As a tribute to this extraordinary man and in support of the Umam Foundation, which will continue its mission, Arsmondo will be screening the film Massacre that he directed with Monika Borgmann and Hermann Theissen in 2005, a testament to his contribution to the remembrance of the history of the Lebanese Civil War.

From 16 to 18 September 1982, for two nights and three days, Sabra and Shatila, the heartland of Palestinian civilian, political, and military presence in Lebanon, turned into a bloodbath under machine-gun fire. Still today, it is impossible to know the exact number of victims, dead and missing. The massacre sent shockwaves through public opinion worldwide. Swept aside by other massacres since, the questions raised by this horrific event remain unanswered: what incited "ordinary" men to commit such brutal and cruel acts of violence? How can these men bear to live with the feelings of culpability that surely must still linger from their part in this "massacre"? 

In content and form, the film Massacre is a study of six figures whose common denominator is participating, either voluntarily or as executors of orders, in the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. From a broader perspective, the film is a conversation on collective violence.

Produced by Joachim Ortmanns, Lichtblick Film