I Am Here But You Can’t See Me is primarily about my movement in this world. The movement that is innately incorporated in each living being is enhanced and challenged here by barriers; all kinds. It is also about the fictitious movement of the people I grew up with and about a marvel city that is based on Beirut.
Movement is change and this film is about change; change as a means not just for survival but for life and what life stands for in its real sense. It is thus about a revolution. A revolution braver than most, one that lies beneath the surface in its aggression as it kills with unnerving calm: for light, for life.
Although it looks like one, I Am Here But You Can’t See Me is not a slice of life, it is rather a film with a city that is armed with citizens conspiring in silence against those who threaten its movement, its life; a city that is intelligently, calmly and aggressively saying NO and celebrating the outcome.
It is not about conveying messages and setting examples, it is not about punishments and sentences, it is simply a film that moves in lines and layers that intersect at all times, a film with no climaxes, except in concrete sound when an explosion bursts; a film with no reactions as all citizens either know what is happening or are distant in their inner world.
I will create this film as a microcosm of a surreal mechanical world that relays something truly human: One’s bravery to act on the impulsive desire to realize what to others might only remain imagined. It is as simple and as complicated as a child’s logic confronted by the danger of stopping him from living, it expresses the innate desire of that child to play freely with all the elements of life and death.
Viola moves to catch the city of her dreams. Farah moves to catch Viola. And along their quest this film moves too, to tell of little things, of repetitions. I Am Here But You Can’t See Me is about details, about little pulses, about tunes and smiles; many... Its aggressiveness is toned down by eye contact, the sweetness of humanity and the paradoxes of life.
This film will speak my mind and express the hybrid world I live in, one that is within me. It will be like a fable like a poem, taking its ingredients from reality and then shooting out to the stars. It is soft with contrasting colors, present with a dreamy mood. The peculiar city of this film sings and films, it also establishes eye contact with the audience as a tool for a revolution; as the camera looks and gazes, the people of the city look and gaze back. Their gazes reassure us that they all know they are being filmed, that they are being watched; consequently they drag the audience to conspire with them in their mission to their salvation.