Double Bill Screening – Lebanon: Deadly Playground and Ashura: Blood and Beauty

Ashura: Blood and Beauty

The 1,300 year-old festival of Ashura is celebrated by Shia Muslims with the shedding of blood to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. But for the youths of one town in South Lebanon it’s a chance to fraternise with the opposite sex away from the prying eyes of elder family members.

Katia Saleh reveals this previously unseen side of Ashura that goes beyond the aggressive and fanatical image that the ritual is best known for.

Length: 20 mins
Produced by: Batoota Films for Al Jazeera

Deadly Playground

In the village of Sadikkeen in South Lebanon there remain an estimated one million unexploded cluster bomblets, dropped by the Israeli forces at the end of their war with Hezbollah in 2006.

These explosives claim the lives of many children who mistake the shiny objects for toys, but 13 year-old Hussein has learned from de-mining experts how to deal with the deadly objects.

Deadly Playground is the story of how the people of Sadikkeen are learning to live with the threat of unexploded bombs and how it is the children who are so frequently the ones to suffer.

Length: 23 mins
Produced by Batoota Films for Al Jazeera