Kashkash
Qumra Projects
/ Feature Documentary / Lebanon, Germany, Qatar
In Arabic
Rated: This film has not been rated.
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Synopsis
In a region torn apart by tradition, modernity, war, geopolitical spheres of influence, migration, and religion, I have discovered an unusual link—the old traditional Kash Hamam game of the Levant. As a pastime, vocation, heritage or addiction, the game spans a unique apolitical network from Syria to Lebanon, connecting people of all religions and political views. Kash Hamam is a game of chance played with pigeons over the rooftops of cities. Each player holds his own flock of birds on the roof and lets his pigeons circle above his house, hoping to lure his neighbour’s pigeons to his roof and thus to enlarge his own flock. The fate of the pigeons is to be gambled from one player to the next. So, the film embarks on a journey through Lebanon, from roof-to-roof we dive into the realities of the luck hunters and their contrasting parallel worlds. Starting with being smuggled from war to safe land, being collected, gambled and tortured but, despite all, loved and admired for being the extension of our freedom which we do not possess on the ground. The doves act as narrative links, lead us to different places and connect our protagonists—a documentary portrait of a region in search of the common denominator in a society defined by differences.