We all Meet in the Sky
Lea Najjar’s Kash Kash Insists on Hope Amid Crisis in Lebanon
Kash Kash is the first feature-length documentary by Lebanese filmmaker, Lea Najjar. Shot entirely on film, Kash Kash follows several men in Beirut who participate in the game Kash Hamam, where pigeons are herded, captured, and collected by competitors. Najjar documents players Radwan, Ammar, and Aisha on their city rooftops. The film also follows Beirut port fisherman, Abu-Mustafa. Kash Kash is part of a recent wave of Lebanese allegorical cinema, including The Sea Ahead (dir. by Ely Dagher), Sirens (dir. by Rita Baghdadi), Costa Brava, Lebanon (dir. by Mounia Akl), and Memory Box (dir. by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige) that addresses contemporary Lebanon after the Beirut explosion in August 2020.
Najjar integrates herself and her crew into the community of players and creates a space for intimacy and discourse. Najjar uses the game of Kash Hamam to address Lebanon's conditions and its people's diverse viewpoints. For example, Ammar talks with Najjar about how he finds pigeons more loyal than humans, and that family and neighborhood are more loyal “than what we are living in today.” This mirrors the historical tendency of Lebanese society to prioritize family, religion, and neighborhood before national identity, as well as the feeling of abandonment from a corrupt government. During one of his interviews with Najjar, Abu-Mustafa says that Beirut is a place where diversity is championed and asks if Najjar wants him to “air out Beirut’s dirty laundry” when she laughs at his statement and prods him further. As the site of the 2020 explosion, the port becomes its own ominous character; smartphone footage from the characters’ personal cellphones is used to document the blast and aftermath. Abu-Mustafa discusses how the city can’t help his sons get higher education but will pay him to remove the bodies of suicide victims in his boat from port cliffs coincidentally named “Pigeon Rock.”
Viewers see how the game is affected by issues plaguing Lebanon, as Radwan travels to find water and purchase corn feed with lira that decreases weekly in value. Radio reports discussing health concerns linked to Lebanon’s trash crisis are included, and there is a scene where Radwan’s mother watches news footage of people fighting over food at the grocery store.
Despite the film’s heavy content, it is sprinkled with humor. At one point in the film, Radwan asks a fellow player to not throw oranges (a tool used in herding the pigeons while airborne) so close to his fiance’s house or she will leave him. There are also intimate scenes where men gather to smoke hookah after games and discuss politics. Kash Hamam is a symbol of optimism, where Beirut citizens can go to escape stress and create a unified community while dealing with a crumbling sectarian nation.
The film ends with differing optimistic and pessimistic messages. Najjar interviews an old man who claims that Lebanon has grown too old and needs to finally die. But viewers also see Radwan get married and protest in the streets, reflecting the Lebanese people’s desire for acceptance of diversity and equity and an end to a corrupt and inadequate government.
Sarah Trad Sarah is a Lebanese American artist, curator, and film programmer whose work explores complex themes of personal and cultural identity through film-based media and textiles.