GFF19 Erased____Ascent of the Invisible (presented by Alchemy Film & Arts)

Referring to thousands of forced disappearances during the Lebanese war of 1975 – 1990, the powerful and thoughtful debut feature from Ghassan Halwani is a deeply insightful reflection on presence, absence and the photographic record. How can we begin to represent a missing person after they have been long disappeared, their absent-presence remaining acutely felt within the personal and political reality of today? The bodies remain deliberately unrecovered, and photographic memory serves as a canvas for Halwani’s quietly haunting film, posing universal questions about truth, representation and erasure.