The Shadow of San Anton

As a documentary maker, Abed Anouti witnessed the harshness of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1992). The Shadow of San Antón looks into the traumatic parallels between what took place in Anouti¿s native city of Beirut and in the Spanish city of Cartagena. Post-war trauma still overshadows both societies. To erase the memory of war, Lebanon launched a reconciliation process. In his film, Anouti questions why Spanish society agreed on a pact of silence and chose self-enforced amnesia. He explores the hidden memories of San Antón prison, a historic building with a silent history, a place which played a significant role during the years 1936-1975. On Tuesday June 22nd, 2010 the authorities of Cartagena decided to shut down the San Antón prison permanently.


Abed Robert Anouti

1963, Beirut (Lebanon). Lives and Works in the Middle East and northern Europe. As many artists of his generation in Lebanon, Abed Robert Anouti is an autodidactic documentary maker who works with video. Anouti conceives his work as a combination of activism and involvement in community and it is presented as an artistic documentary in video format that propose reflections about history, geography and migration. His work is focused on concepts such as local history, collective memory, and the comparison of the public statistics with the public narratives. At present, he explores issues on Arabic communities in Diaspora. Previously, Anouti has produced video documentary on contemporary society and Arabic modern history as well as on the scenery change of the satellite TV in Europe. His work offers a reflection on the Diasporas communication, multiculturalism and the representation of those communities out of place or resettled ones. He examines examples of euro-arabic interaction through the Arabic language means and the satellite channels; he also observes the changing dynamic between symbolic and territorial power. Anouti¿s work has been exhibited in Arabic film festivals and broadcasted in several TV channels such Arabiah, Mustaqbal, Al Alam y LBC.