Taste of Cement

Presented by the Goethe-Institut New York

Germany/Syria/Lebanon//United Arab Emirates/Qatar. Dir. Ziad Kalthoum. 2017, 85 mins. Digital projection. In Arabic with English subtitles. Berlin-based Syrian filmmaker Ziad Kalthoum’s award-winning, cinematically audacious documentary explores the days and nights of Syrian refugees employed as construction workers in post–Civil War Beirut. Laboring to erect a towering skyscraper by day, they spend their nights in curfew, relegated to the cavernous basement of the site, haunted by memories of a homeland left in ruins, hoping for a chance to rebuild. “Kalthoum has created here a study of men anguished by conflict without ever exploiting their predicament; Cement is a cinematic odyssey that invokes the senses and proves that the moving image is a singularly apt medium for representing the cost of human displacement.”—Rooney Elmi, Reverse Shot

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.