The debut film from Sandra Tabet, Rabies, looks at 90s Beirut through a different kind of horror lens to the bleak reality of post-war ruin, but will harness that. The project is being developed at Atlas Workshops.
Real Life Horror and History
The story of Rabies follows 60-year-old history teacher Julia, who tries to find a cure for her 30-year-old son Ghassan, who, after being bitten by a rabid dog, slowly transforms into a violent monster.
Lebanese director Tabet, who lived in Beirut until 2021, didn’t initially believe she was making a horror movie, but as she dug into her feelings of being trapped in the city she loved, it evolved into that.
Garbage had piled up during and after the Civil War, and with many pets abandoned, stray dogs roamed the streets, and a rabies epidemic spread quickly. In places, people could not move safely due to it being overrun with ravenous dogs. Tabet said in her interview with Variety that horror was a safe space to talk about these things publicly.
The project is a co-production between DB Studios (Lebanon) and Haut les Mains Productions (France). The partners attached are DFI, Red Sea Film Festival, and Région Nouvelle Aquitaine.
There’s no release date for Rabies at this time.
