SEA SALT
Leila Basma
Lebanon / Czech Republic
The summer is coming to an end soon and Nayla, a late teenager in the city of Tyre, Lebanon, has life-changing decisions to make.
SYNOPSIS
On a hot summer day, Nayla (17), a beachside resort waitress, has to decide what her future will hold before the summer ends. Her controlling brother wants to take her to Canada, while she made secret plans to go to Beirut the next day with her new friends. As the night falls, Nayla has her first sexual experience with Anthony, her summer love, and realizes that he wants to control her too. The Next day, Nayla’s brother arrives at the resort looking for her while Anthony wakes up with no one by his side.
INTENTION
Growing up in Tyre, south of Lebanon, in between two extremes of free-spirited people and conservative family members, I struggled to know who I wanted to be. One day I wanted to know how to pray, another day I wanted to know what kissing feels like. Nayla is going through the same confusion. She ends up freeing herself from the two sides of the society embodied in the characters of her brother and her lover; representing the self-proclaimed protectors of women. I am hoping that this film can inspire women, just like me and Nayla, who grew up thinking that they had to be what society wanted them to be. I also want this film to portray a less stereotypical image of Arab towns and Muslim characters, and to instead, show their realities and their dilemmas. This story will also shed light on the decision every Lebanese youngster is faced with today: to leave or to stay. I also like to describe this story as my love/hate letter to Tyre, the town that made me who I am today with all its ugliness and beauty.
DIRECTOR
Leila Basma
Leila Basma is a Lebanese filmmaker with a BA in Audiovisual Arts from IESAV in Beirut, currently based in Prague pursuing an MFA in Film Directing at FAMU. Her second-year short documentary The Adam Basma Project was short-listed for the 48th annual Student Academy Awards (the Student Oscars) after touring various documentary film festivals. She is currently developing her next short film Sea Salt and her first feature documentary Dance with Me with Abbout Productions.
PRODUCER
Natália Pavlove
Natália Pavlove is a filmmaker from Slovakia and currently finishing her Master’s degree in Film and TV Production at FAMU. During her studies, she produced numerous short fiction and animated films and worked with various production companies. In 2021, she founded her own production company Other Stories.
Genre
Drama, Coming of Age
Length
15 min
Language
Lebanese Arabic
Shooting location
Tyre (Sour), South of Lebanon
Production company
Other Stories (Czech Republic), FAMU (film school, Czech Republic), Road2Films (Lebanon)
Estimated budget
€75.000
Secured funding
FAMU - €32.000, FilmTalent Zlin Endowment Fund - €4.000, Doha Film Institute grant - €9.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Sales, Distribution, Festivals, Post-production, Partners