Sun Hee Engelstoft, Danish film student/ Photo: Jacob Aue Sobol, photographer

27-year old Sun Hee from the National Film School of Denmark flew to Lebanon in September to film life in the streets of Beirut. Instead, circumstances led her to the Palestinian Badawi Refugee Camp in Tripoli, where her meeting with three young, Palestinian boys became the focus of her documentary 

By Helle Nordberg, IMS 

Sun Hee Engelstoft  is one of three Danish student film directors from the National Film School of Denmark who spent a month in Lebanon with support from IMS, producing a 20 minute documentary on a subject of their choice.

Her trip took place parallel to that of three Lebanese film producers visiting Denmark on a similar mission as part of the IMS Arab Twinning Programme connecting film and media professionals in the Arab world and Denmark.

Badawi Refugee Camp

From beginning to end, Sun and her fellow filmaking colleagues from both Denmark and Lebanon, were solely responsible for all aspects of the film-making process from researching, developing, filming to cutting and audio-processing their own film product.

- The biggest challenge for me was to achieve what I originally set out to do: to make a film about everyday lives and friendships in Lebanon and to make contact with people, Sun Hee Engelstoft explains, speaking to IMS.

- I began by walking the streets of Beirut with my camera, but circumstances gave me the opportunity to travel north to Tripoli to visit the Badawi Refugee Camp. Here I met three young boys aged 8, 10 and 11 and they became the focus of my film. I spoke to them about their lives and their aspirations for the future through an interpreter. I followed their internal discussions and observed the way in which they interacted and what they did in their free time. I try to show things from their perspective, as if the story was being fseen through the eyes of a child.

Badawi Refugee Camp was set up in the 1950'ties by the UN Relief and Works Agency and houses to to 45,000 Palestinian refugees and other minorities in Lebanon. The overcrowded and run-down camp is surrounded by walls and wire fencing. Although the infrastructure is weak, it has schools and shops for the many inhabitants, some of which who's families have lived there for more than four generations.

For Sun the story of the three young boys who have never known any other life than the camp, provided a window to the problems facing young people growing up in refugee camp environments.

- They are not a part of general society and there are many underlying problems which are simply not addressed, she says.

- Lebanese law prevents them from becoming an intergrated part of society, allowing them to improve their situation by finding education, work and housing elsewhere outside the camp. 

Working alone

While Sun Hee is usually accustomed to working  as a multi-camera director in a team using several cameras for one production, she was a one woman, one camera operation in Lebanon.

- It was lonely at times, but I and the two other Danish film student directors visiting Lebanon supported each other, but also simultaneously tried to move in different directions with our work. We met briefly with two of the Lebanese film students traveling to Denmark, Corinne and Halim, who have played a part in promoting the new Institute of Film in Beirut. I also met local artists during my stay in Lebanon who were extremely welcoming and receptive to my work.

A Sun Hee’s ambition is for her film to air in Beirut as well as in Denmark and to reconnect with the two Lebanese film producers to see their end products made during their 6-week stay in the fall of 2009. 

IMS Twinning programme

The six week visit of three film producers from Lebanon to Denmark and that of three third year students from the Danish School of Film to Lebanon was organised in cooperation with International Media Support (IMS) as part of IMS’ Arab Twinning programme which connects film workers and media professionals in Denmark and the Arab world.

Watch this space for trailers from film students coming soon.