In Hadi Ghandour’s The Traveller, dreams of travel lead to a voyage of self-discovery

The comedy film about a Lebanese man who dreams of seeing the world but has never left his home country, will have its regional premiere at Diff on Thursday.

Director Hadi Ghandour. Photo by Laïd Liazid
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Director Hadi Ghandour was an 18-year-old working at Disney World during the millennial celebrations when he started to conceive his debut film.

One of his co-workers was a Lebanese man visiting the United States for the first time.

“He had never travelled before in his life and he had a wife and child back home,” says Ghandour. “He looked at America with such wonderment, and at the same time, I felt this deep melancholy within him – he was a very quiet character. I became obsessed with this guy. Later I found out that he abandoned his family and stayed in the US.”

Seventeen years later, The Traveller, Ghandour's comedy about a Lebanese man who dreams of seeing the world but has never left his home country, will have its regional premiere at Diff on Thursday, November 8.

In Beirut, Adnan, played by Rodrigue Sleiman (Halal Love), is a travel agent who gets his chance to travel when his boss sends him to Paris for a conference. It is a dream come true – but he soon discovers the grass is not always greener on the other side.

“This personality of a guy who has big dreams, and wondering what might my life have been, and then realising how difficult it is, that is the seed of the film,” says Ghandour.

“Of course, I struggled with this myself. I had these feelings for a while because I’m Lebanese, but I was born in Jordan. I’m also Belgian, I lived in the United States, London, Dubai and Cairo. So the concept of travel has always been a massive thing in my life.”

As a result, he often finds himself wondering: “Where do I belong? Who am I? Where do I fit in? These questions have always been really important to me.”

The 35-year-old, a graduate of the London Film School, wanted to make a light-hearted, character-driven film about the Middle East.

“The ethnicity gives it a specificity to the culture,” he says. “I don’t want to deal with issues of war and refugees and conflict. These are important things but I think it’s nice to do a story about a human being, like everybody else, because many people look at Arabs and think conflict, terrorism and all those stereotypes.”

Another cliché Ghandour tears apart is the classic, romantic image of Paris.

“The postcard image of Paris isn’t really the reality,” he says.

Ultimately the most important journey Adnan takes is exploring what is in his heart.

“For me, it was more important to have the film about Adnan’s inner journey than about his trip to another city.”

• The Traveller screens at Vox Cinemas, Mall of the Emirates, at 10pm tonight and 3pm on Sunday. Both are sold out but standby tickets might be available

artslife@thenational.ae