Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige

Rounds (Barmeh) is a video featuring Rabih Mroué, who appears as a strangely familiar driver, filmed steering through the streets of the city. Beirut is mentioned, evoked through the driver’s stories and through sound, but never seen. Invisible in overexposed whiteness, Beirut escapes definition. However, its presence is confirmed through the ongoing discourse. Like his driving, Mroué’s stories spin in a circle. He seems a ghost, inseparable from his car, haunting the streets of a city where a reconstruction project is in progress.

Underlying these thoughts about the car and the road system is also a reflection on the modernisation project undertaken in that strange postwar period.

Original title	Barme
English title	Rounds
Production Company	Espace Francophone
Co production	Future Television (Lebanon) and France 3 (France) for Espace Francophone.
Date of production	December 2001
Running time	7 min 30
Original format	DV Cam
Language	Arabic
Subtitles	English or French
Directors	Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
Actor	Rabih Mroué
Script	Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige & Rabih Mroué
Photography	Ahmad al Jardali & Khalil Joreige
Editing	Nada Abdallah

Don’t Walk
The Lost Film