AllMovie

Filmmaker Ghassan Salhab offers an unusual look at the creative process in action in this low-key drama. A man in his mid-40s (Fadi Abi Samra) catches a ride to an airport in Beirut, rents a car and then takes a long drive to a motel in a remote village in the mountains. The man rents a room for a long stay, settles in and then takes out a package of paper and a fountain pen. For the rest of the film, we watch the man as he writes poetry and wrestles with his muse, experiencing a wealth of complex emotions as he tries to put his thoughts into words. Is this man simply a writer working on his latest project? Or is there something deeper at work, and we're watching someone try to come to terms with some terrible mistakes? Al-Jabal (aka The Mountain) was an official selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.