“The Last Stop” is a 2012 Brazilian-Lebanese film directed by Marcio Cury, and starring Mounir Maasri, Roula Hamadeh, Claude Khalil, and Ghassan Stephan, among others. The drama follows the story of a Lebanese teenager who is forced to flee his homeland during the Civil War. It follows his journey of migration with his family to Brazil and his quest 50 years later to reconnect with his old friends.
This Brazilian-Lebanese Film Tells the Story of a Lebanese Teenager Fleeing Lebanon’s War
A Brazilian-Lebanese Film Showed the Journey of a Lebanese Teen Fleeing Lebanon War and His Quest to Reconnect
Premiered at the 45th Festival de Brasília in 2012, “The Last Stop” was subsequently screened the same year at the 36th São Paulo International Film Festival, the 35th Cairo International Film Festival, and the 16th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
Lebanese teenager Tarik, the main character of the film, leaves his hometown in Lebanon in search of a “better life” in Brazil with his immediate and extended family.
The film follows his journey to Brazil by sea as well as his experiences on the ship, his befriending other young Arabs and Arabic speakers from the region, as well as depicts flashbacks, the stories they share with each other, as well as the difficulty of the journey.
The film’s main plotline centers on Tarik who, fifty years after arriving in Brazil, goes on looking for his friends from his lifechanging ship ride, with the help of his daughter.
The screenwriter Di Moretti interviewed over ten Lebanese families as research for the film’s premise, as well as for what he says is “necessary in order to depict a true reality.”
Di Moretti conducted in-depth interviews with the families in order to develop a deeper sense of the Lebanese culture, as well as a sense of “life as a Lebanese immigrant.”
According to Di Moretti, there were several scenes shot in Lebanon, but none of them made it to the final cut of the film.
In 2017, the Embassy of Brazil in Beirut and the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center (Centro Cultural Brasil-Líbano) screened the film at their center in Beirut. “A Última Estação (The Last Stop), was screened free of charge for audiences who got also to enjoy a private Q&A with Mounir Massri, the main actor, and the producer Georges Karam.
Most recently, on June 2019, the film was screened in Amman, Jordan, as part of the Brazilian Film Days festival.
That international event, organized by the Embassy of Brazil in Amman and the Royal Film Commission Jordan, was part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Brazilian-Jordanian diplomatic ties, and of the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Embassy of Jordan in Brasília and the Embassy of Brazil in Amman.
