Synopsis
Six months in the life of Ziko, a 40-year old ex-con and petty gambler, and his three boyhood friends, in a seedy, lower-middle class district of Beirut. As Lebanon is consumed by political infighting, a severe economic crisis and the specter of war, Ziko is released from prison and wants to restart his life. He’s determined to win back Carole - the love of his life - and open up a new gambling joint, locally known as an “Amusement Center.” But he eventually discovers that Carole has long given up on him, and that his old debtor has vanished.
Ziko and his friends share one passion, besides their boyhood memories. They have something in common: a tiny flaw. They’re all fanatic about gambling and horseracing. And ultimately, they organize a scam they hope will rescue them from their troubles.
As he makes his way through his restless course, Ziko runs into his dead brother’s friend, an edgy young man who spends his time racing in deadly underground motorbike contests across the city’s highways. Ziko learns that his sibling perished on one of these illegal races, and decides to save his brother’s friend from the same, inevitable deadly fate.
For Ziko, restarting his life means a struggle on all fronts. With his back against the wall, Ziko faces all these challenges in one go. But everyone knows that, once a gambler, always a gambler. Ziko’s biggest fight turns out to be his inner struggle. Should he continue doing what he knows best? Should he surrender to fate? When you have no choice, does it make it easier to choose?
Driven by a never-ending determination and a relentless will to survive, Ziko sets out on his journey through contemporary post-war Lebanese society, a place made of an incongruous mixture of violence and tenderness, lightness of being and dreadful tension. It’s a place where the scent of ineluctable disaster is in the air, along with the inimitable perfume of an existence both sweet and bitter.
Beirut Hold’em also depicts the destiny of four middle-class “guys,” fighting their way into a country on the edge of war and bankruptcy, where instability makes everyday life feel like a circus trapeze, and sheer existence is yet another form of gambling.