Fascinated by stories of the aristocratic Bustros family, who remained in their large 19th century mansion in the mostly deserted downtown section of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, director Jennifer Fox leaves N.Y.U. film school to document her good friend Gabby Bustros’ return to her family home. Filming everything from an auto race to an elaborate family wedding, from a festive costume party to a group sailboat outing, Beirut: The Last Home Movie offers an intimate profile of the Bustros family’s attempts to maintain their upper-class lifestyle as the devastating civil war rages all around them.

Filmed and edited in a narrative style, Fox’s documentary was an official entry at more than twenty prestigious film festivals world-wide and is the winner of seven international awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Following its U.S. theatrical release, Beirut: The Last Home Movie was broadcast as a P.B.S. Frontline Special in 1991.

Official Selection of the 2005 Vancouver International Film Festival and San Francisco International Film Festival.

Winner! Grand Jury Prize, Best Documentary
- Sundance Film Festival, 1988

Winner! Cinematography Award
- Sundance Film Festival, 1988

Winner! Grand Prix
- Cinema du Reel

“A documentary with the expansiveness and complexity of great fiction. . . it takes great guts to attempt an audacious feat like this one, and something like genius to pull it off.”
- Hal Hinson, Washington Post

(1988, 125 minutes, In Arabic, English & French with English subtitles, Directed by Jennifer Fox)

DVD Special Features

• The Seduction of War: A Conversation With Jennifer Fox (59 minute featurette)
• New digital transfer from original film elements
• Remastered audio and video

Release Information: SRP $24.99, UPC 643519118592

Release Date: September 2007

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