House Of Memory

This moving story is about the aftermath of the civil war in Lebanon.

What happens when war ends and people struggle to rebuild their shattered lives? Should there be war crimes tribunals and truth commissions, or is it better for people to try to make their own peace with themselves and each other?

The film follows Muna Hallak, a young architect who is trying to save the once-elegant Barakat Building, a ruined 1920s apartment block built right on the line that divides east and west Beirut. The building serves as a microcosm of the divisions in the civil war; its occupants included members of the various hostile communities, while its location came to make it a natural sniper’s hideout.

Now the owners want to tear the house down for redevelopment, but Muna is trying to turn it into a museum for the memory of the war.