Projects in development
RABIES
Synopsis
Sixty-year-old Julia, a history professor, teaches the controversial Lebanese Civil War. Her solitary lifestyle is disrupted when 30-year-old Ghassan, her only son, comes back to live with her. While mother and son attempt to reconstruct their broken relationship, the war-time rabid dogs reappear, spreading terror in the streets of Beirut. When Ghassan is bitten, Julia witnesses his transformation into a violent, brutal man. Together, they embark on a nightmarish journey through the capital, looking for a cure as the city collapses around them.
DB Studios (Lebanon)
Rana Eid
rana.dbstudios@gmail.com
Haut les Mains Productions (France)
Thomas Micoulet
Thomas@hautlesmainsproductions.fr
Director’s statement
I don’t remember the Lebanese Civil War but I grew up hearing its stories. While this part of our history was never written, it was dismantled by the amplifying noise of the media that muted our voices and petrified our bodies. My generation hears only the echo of these buried memories and we are left unaware of our past, strangers in our own capital. Rabies is a horror film that relies on genre coding to explore the society it depicts. It is the story of a city that is left to decay for fear of dealing with its history. In line with my previous work, I rely on my long experience in sound and the use of horror film codes to convey the repressed violence that simmers in Beirut. With Rabies, I am using cinema to find my way into my amnesiac city by unearthing its ghosts and reshaping its memory.
Biographies
Born in 1985, Sandra Tabet is a Lebanese filmmaker based in France. She earned a BA in Arts du Spectacle from Saint Joseph University of Beirut in 2007 and an MA in filmmaking from the London Film School in 2014. Her directing credits include the shorts The Howl (2017), which won the Jury Prize at the Maskoon Film Festival, and Hell (2021), which had its premiere at Cinemed. In 2017, Tabet participated in Berlinale Talents, and in 2018 became a partner with DB Studios Beirut. She is currently developing Rabies, her first feature-length film.
Rana Eid is a renowned sound designer. She co-founded DB Studios Beirut in 2006 and has collaborated on acclaimed films including Evil Dead Rise (2023) and Goodbye Julia (2023), which was selected at the Festival de Cannes. She co-produced the essay film Panoptic (2017), which was screened at the Locarno Film Festival. Eid is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and of the Motion Picture Sound Editors organisation.
Thomas Micoulet has co-led the French production company Haut les Mains since 2009. He has produced more than 20 films, including the award-winning documentary I Am the People (2014 - Acid, Cannes); Poisonous Roses (2018 - International Film Festival Rotterdam); and Europe (2022 - Berlin International Film Festival).
€823 700
€67 500
DFI, Red Sea Film Festival, Région Nouvelle Aquitaine
April 2025, Beirut (Lebanon)
January 2026
