Cie Omar Rajeh & Maqamat The Odor of Elephants After the Rain Beirut (Lebanon), Lyon (France)

The Odor of Elephants After the Rain is a poignant work by dance artist Omar Rajeh, created in Beirut in the aftermath of the devastating explosion at the port in August 2020. Emerging from a landscape marked by political upheaval, economic collapse and collective grief, the film bears witness to a city and its people in the wake of profound rupture. 

Commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival, the film forms part of Rajeh’s wider artistic inquiry into memory, displacement and resilience. It reflects on the dismantling of Citerne Beirut, the performing arts space he founded, alongside the compounded crises that have reshaped Lebanon in recent years. 

Through an evocative visual language, Rajeh traces the emotional residue of trauma: spaces erased, histories fractured and identities unsettled. The film lingers on the tension between remembrance and erasure, capturing the persistence of the body as a vessel for both pain and endurance. 

Meditative and deeply personal, The Odor of Elephants After the Rain offers a powerful reflection on how individuals and communities continue to move, create and exist amid loss.