What is the film about?

An ageing grandmother loses her five senses, one after the other before finally becoming a wooden chair. Throughout her transformation, she realizes that her African housekeeper is not the wild animal she once thought she was, but the caring and loyal family member she was sadly lacking.

What influenced it?

My Grandmother has always lived very close to my house, yet I never felt the urge to visit her often. I naively thought she would always be there, but when she passed away, I knew she was gone forever.

At first, this film came out of grief in a healing process to overcome the loss of someone dear, but it then became an insight on human relationships.

Despite being a loving person, my grandmother couldn’t see her African housekeeper Rose as part of her family even after all these years of living with us. It was only on her deathbed that she was able to perceive her for who she truly was, a human with feelings and aspirations. In Rose, she found family!

A little background information...

Between life and death, social injustice and stigmas quickly vanish because at the end we are all equal and we are all human. Nowadays, this common fact is forgotten many places in the world where slavery takes modern forms denying unfortunate people their simple right to love and be loved.

Not only does this film celebrate the strong woman that was my grandmother, trying to hold her family together, but it also sheds light on the transformation housekeeper Rose went through to become the independent woman she is. This story is about life, death and the truths revealed when social stigmas subside.

How was the film made?

This collaboration between Nicolas Fattouh (director/author, Lebanon) and Fabian Driehorst (producer Germany) started thanks to the initiative of The Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, which offers a project market for Arab filmmakers and German producers. After 9months of co-development the project found co-producer Nermine Haddad (Lebanon) and win the production prize at Berlinale 2018. The team could get support from AFAC, Doha Film Institute and MOIN – Hamburg regional film funds. In 2019 the production could start after being delayed by the crisis in Lebanon and had to be made remotely after Nicolas was issued the visa to work in Germany for the project. Nevertheless, the team was fantastic and contributed to the director’s creative vision, that everyone grew more closely together, despite the long distant workflow.