Lebanese photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller Fadia Ahmad presents two complementary artistic projects this December that delve deep into themes of exile, memory, and human vulnerability. Born in Alicante, Spain in 1975, Ahmad has never stopped exploring the depths of her country of origin, which she imagined as a child behind the horizon when her mother would tell her, "Beyond that line, there is Lebanon."

The artist returns to Lebanese themes with two interconnected proposals: a documentary film and a photography exhibition, both exploring exile, memory, human fragility, and the need for belonging that has characterized her work for over twenty years. The documentary "Together," presented at the Metropolis cinema, enters into conversation with photographs from the "Two Shades of Blue" series exhibited at No Chef in the Kitchen, continuing to blend reality with poetry, commitment with introspection, and personal narratives with universal resonance.

These two projects of rare complementarity each interrogate what constitutes us: our memories, our internal borders, our connections, our fractures, and our impulses. They form two sensitive narratives that respond to each other and weave the same reflection on identity and relationships with others. Human relationships are obviously complex, but what becomes of them in the context of a country as unstable and dangerous as it is infinitely seductive like Lebanon?

"Together" is a film about the courage to love despite everything, about the silent work that relationships demand, and about the beauty of what holds, even when everything wavers," Ahmad explains. The documentary ventures into the heart of what makes human relationships endure. Without effects or artifice, she films the infinitely mundane: gestures, silences, glances, hesitations, and impulses of tenderness that often escape words but tell everything.

Beirut viewers will recognize at least one familiar figure from the city's microcosms among those who agreed to participate in this difficult game of truth. The cast includes Anita Babikian and Jean Carrau; Maya G. Eid and Halim N. Massrouaa; Najem Halim Massrouaa; Gia-Maria, Julia and Lilia Massrouaa; Amale Nassib Abou Kheir; Mona Mardelli Assaf and Georges Assaf; Nesrin Zreik el-Kaissouni and Aiman el-Kaissouni; Sam and Keyan el-Kaissouni; Mira Abou Jaoudé and Joud Charafeddine; Nada Zein al-Abidine; Linda Wattar; Amani Hassan and Rami Kawkab; Carmen D'Alessio; Marie Mathilde and Ali Jaber; Dr. Mariange Nohra; Prof. Gerard Bejjani; and Dr. Nicolas Baaklini and Carole Nader.

In them, Ahmad found the material for this documentary that focuses on invisible bonds that bring us together or drive us apart, vulnerability, the need to be understood, and the sometimes difficult task of remaining open in a world where everything seems fragile. Through couples with varied stories from different cultures, "Together" highlights a simple and universal truth: everywhere, human beings seek the same thing—to be seen for who they are. The film captures the choreography of emotions that tells Beirut's story differently, focusing on what keeps human relationships standing.

The documentary finds its echo just steps away from the Metropolis at Christine Abi Azar's No Chef in the Kitchen space, a conceptual venue dedicated to creation and commitment. In a new series of photographs, Ahmad returns to the Mediterranean, a place that for her represents "origin and heartbreak, belonging and distance." Through these photos grouped under the title "Between Two Shades of Blue," the sea becomes a character, a mirror, an interior territory.

"Between Two Shades of Blue explores this in-between space: that of departure and return, of uprooting and anchoring, of inherited identity and that which is built along the way," the artist explains. "The images, in blue sometimes dense, sometimes faded, tell the memories carried by the sea, the comings and goings, the waiting, the rebirths. At the center, always, a face-to-face encounter: that of the other, that of oneself." The Mediterranean becomes both border and refuge, a mirror of memories and displacement in this Mediterranean in-between space.

Presenting a film and an exhibition in the same month is not coincidental. "The two projects compose the same sentence, written with two artistic languages," Ahmad emphasizes. "'Together' scrutinizes the intimate, what connects beings. 'Between Two Shades of Blue' scrutinizes the landscape, what connects the shores. Both, however, converge: they speak of love, distance, what grounds us and what we carry without knowing it. They speak of this essential need: to connect."

Following her previous documentaries and photographs including "Beirut, the Aftermath," "It Could Be You," and "Beyrouth/Beirut," she continues to blend objective perspective, visual poetry, and commitment. Her work always stands at the intersection: between people and their wounds, between places and their ghosts, between art and reality. There are tears, there is laughter, regrets, declarations, confessions, mourning, illness, abandonment, passion, love, and cruelty—all explored through suspended gestures and naked truths that capture the intimacy that keeps people standing.

Fadia Ahmad's "Between Two Shades of Blue" will be exhibited from December 13-17, 2025, at No Chef in The Kitchen space on Pasteur Street, Emile Rayess Building, 6th floor. "Together" will be screened from December 8-12, 2025, at Metropolis cinema in Mar Mikhael on Pharaon Street.