Song of All Ends follows the life of a family of 6 living in the Shatila camp as a sequence of days when nothing happens. Gradually, amidst hardships and dreams, we discover that the family is mourning the loss of their youngest daughter, little Houda, after the Beirut harbour explosion of 2020. This loss will lead them to abandon all their possessions in search of a new beginning.

Dancing in the Rubble

The dance accompanying a song writ ten at the end of the world is one of the few proofs that the characters are alive. Time, oscillating between reality and dream, has stopped here, at the very heart of the dystopia, but at the same time it moves slowly, compelled to flow.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

Paul Gaugin's painting of the same name (D'où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?), created during his visit to Tahiti, was particularly influential in the development of the ideas behind the film Song of All Ends. The idea behind the painting of accepting everything and submitting to all thoughts is reflected throughout the film, as if everyone is somehow filling their time in a life that is passing by rather than being lived.

The painting as a whole represents the cycle of ‘birth-sin-death’ from right to left, with the image of a little girl surrounded by kittens representing purity in the centre. The eternal search for the elemental, the contemplation of life in its various stages, and the purity in the image of little Houda - which symbolises a life lost through an act of human indifference - are the basic building blocks of this drama, both fiction and reality.

We choose the beginning
But the end chooses us
And there is no other road
except the road.