Philip Aractanji

Philippe Aractingi (born 1964) is a Franco-Lebanese filmmaker.

Philippe Aractingi is a Franco-Lebanese director born in 1964. Self-taught, he begins his career by taking photographs of Beirut's daily life during the Lebanese civil war, and directs his first documentary at age 21. During an unstable period, he trusts his intuition, and launches into a profession that was almost absent in his country at the time.

In 1989, he leaves Lebanon, and moves to France. He opens himself up to the world, and until 2001, he directs around twenty films. As a multi-faceted director, he dedicates a film to the archeology in Sri Lanka, observes the daily lives of acrobat children in Morocco, and contemplates the giraffes in South Africa, always moving from one topic to another with the same passion of travel and discovery. In 1993, driven by the desire to experiment with various media and to touch on diverse topics, Philippe co-writes “Les Mères à l’Epreuve du Liban” with Lela Chikhani-Nacouz.

Meanwhile, he continues to devote part of his work to Lebanon, and to the aftermath of the war. Just as the latter ends, and as the borders are reopening between the Lebanese, he embarks on a journey to encounter the other by capturing the suffering of Lebanese women, the forgotten witnesses amidst the clashes. Through Mothers’ Eyes (1992) touches Lebanon in its entirety and beats audience records in France. In a poetic film, Beirut of Stones and Memories (1993), he reveals the scars of the city, associating texts by the Lebanese poet Nada Tueni with his images of Beirut ruins.

In 2001, Philippe Aractingi moves back to Lebanon and founds Fantascope Production; a content-driven company specialized in the production of all-format documentaries.

With Bosta (2005), his first feature-length fiction film, he offers an innovative look at Lebanon by directing a musical, a first for post-war Lebanon. With its 140 000 entries in Lebanon, a record number in 25 years, this road movie, both entertaining and realistic, reunites the Lebanese with their cinema, and paves the way for a new generation of films.

When in 2006 a new war breaks out in Lebanon, Philippe Aractingi, used to filming in a state of urgency, decides to shoot his second feature film. Filmed two days after the end of the war, Under the bombs (2008) places two professional actors in the heat of the moment, in the South of Lebanon, and confronts them with real actors (civilians, soldiers, rescue teams, etc.) who embody their actual roles. This fictional story with a real-life setting, which combines improvised and written scenes, has been distributed in around twenty countries. Under the Bombs has been selected at the Venice Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Dubai International Film Festival. It has also won 23 prizes to date.

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