In Beirut, Syrian refugees construct new skyscrapers while their homes in Syria are being shelled. With a 7:00pm curfew imposed on them by the Lebanese government, the construction workers’ only contact with the outside world is the hole through which they climb out and begin a each day of work, and the late night gatherings where they watch news from home.

After his film The Immortal Sergeant, Ziad Khaltoum composes an excruciating essay on what it means to live in exile in a war-torn world, with no possibilities to return home. Precise camera framing, unorthodox editing, and dreamlike narrative detours are the trademarks of a daring, imaginative and visually challenging cinematographic work.

“Taste of Cement situates the Syrian refugees within a specific environment, embeds that environment within the body, and laces trauma and displacement through every sense available. …a bracing reminder that our lives are carried out in these fragile bodies that we all inhibit, and a film that embraces all of the cinematic tools at its disposal to put and keep us in those bodies, aware of what movement, labor, and fear actually feel like, may be wielding a far more formidable power.” – Sierra Pettengill, Screen Slate