Hôtel Beyrouth

In the late 80s, after fleeing the war in Lebanon, Zeina and Fady’s family settled in Ottawa. The family home soon became the place to be for exiled Lebanese seeking temporary refuge.

Zeina, 14, and Fady, 9, moved to Canada with their parents in 1989, having fled the war that had raged in Lebanon for over a decade. As the family struggles to adapt to their new home, their residence quickly becomes a place of transition for Lebanese immigrants. Fady, overjoyed to finally have his own room, is forced to leave it every time a new guest shows up, which doesn’t sit well with the young boy, and even less with his older sister, who is trying to fit in at school, one lie at a time. Zeina and Fady not only find their home invaded by all these newcomers, but also have to juggle culture shock, adaptation and a new school environment, as well as the psychological trauma that the war will have caused them.

Hotel Beirut tells the story of the Haddad family with humor: a story of mutual aid, reconstruction and adaptation, seen through the eyes of two very endearing young people: Zeina, a switched-on, sensitive teenager in the midst of an identity crisis; and Fady, an inquisitive, energetic youngster who often puts his foot in it. Between Beirut and Ottawa, keftas and shepherd’s pie, traditional Lebanese music and North American pop, the children of the Haddad family find themselves caught between two worlds, two distinct realities, a little Beirut in the heart of the capital.

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