Moss Agate

Moss Agate.

A visit to a cosmetic-surgery clinic and the discovery of a lump in his testicle and an abscess in his mouth confront filmmaker Selim Mourad with transience and decay in this unashamedly navel-gazing film essay. ‘Selim from Beirut’ is the last in a long list of names of extinct species he recites during a loveless Grindr fuck. After his death, which proceeds without any further explanation or ado, we see Selim’s image appearing in an exhibition by a pretentious photographer. As he hangs nonchalantly on the gallery wall – looking like the love-child of Jean-Paul Belmondo and James Dean, complete with cigarette dangling from his lips – a visitor to the gallery comments that the round framing of these portraits of the dead is reminiscent of film. The actual film frame then also adopts this circular form, this time with Selim’s friend Tamara at the centre. What follows is in many ways like a snake swallowing its own tail, with both maker and work constantly self-referencing; in the eternal cycle of birth and death this creates, Selim and Tamara finally become their own ancestors. The naked, queer body once again plays a prominent role in this concluding instalment of Mourad’s Linceul trilogy – preceded by the shorts Linceul (2017) and Cortex (2018). Using a combination of painterly images, form experimentation, mythical motifs and philosophical commentary, Agate Mousse forms an aesthetic antidote to fear of The End.

Director.

Selim Mourad was born in Beirut in 1987. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in audiovisual studies (2009) and his master’s degree in Filmmaking (2012) from IESAV (Beirut). In 2017, he completed a second master’s degree in Film Research around the theme of “The Screen of Sacrifice”. He also participated in the Documentary Exchange Workshop with the Danish Film School. His filmography includes some short documentaries like the award-winning Letter to My Sister (2008) and A Trip to the Barbershop (2010). While in university, he also directed several medium length films like: + (2010), La Demolition (2011) and *:La conception (2012). This Little Father Obsession is his first feature documentary. It premiered in competition in Visions Du Réel international film festival (2016) and went on to have a beautiful festival life. In 2021, Selim finished a political film trilogy about the nude body by screening the third film Moss Agate in the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (Tiger Competition). After having deirected the medium lenght Tea with Adonis, Selim is currently developing his next feature film.