Dir. Bassem Breche. Lebanon, Qatar. 2022. 78 mins.

Bassem Breche’s feature directorial debut, previously titled The Maiden’s Pond, is ostensibly about a mother and daughter in a small Lebanese village and is a film which relies heavily on natural beauty, atmospherics and mood to carry a slim story through. (Even that description perhaps over-sells the narrative, as the daughter only arrives at the 40-minute mark, and very few words are exchanged throughout). A talented visualist, Breche has impressed with a series of short films – his first, Both, premiered at Cannes Critics Week in 2007 – and Riverbed is replete with imagery to treasure, apart from being a masterclass on how to turn a central venue from a haven into a prison and back again fusing space and light. However, it lacks the energy and connection to take it from short-film terrain into fully-fledged narrative that might be of wider appeal.

Breche’s feature debut wants to speak to the audience in images

Premiering in Cairo in the Arab Competition, the introspective Riverbed will find fans in the more rarefied end of festival programming, and may well travel that circuit, although other exposure is less easy to predict. It’s certainly an enigmatic piece from its very first moments, setting out its stall for what is to come with light filtering through the blinds of a bedroom in a villa, slowly making out the shape of the main character, Salma (Carole Abood) as she rises to face another day.

This is a film which uses mirrors, and the back of Salma’s head, extensively — one key shot is a complicated double-reflection – and is careful with its placement of the horizon, frames, slats and diagonals. A rear shot watches her looking out to the terraces from her balcony, for example, but later exteriors will show this grand-looking house is a little less elegant than it originally appears. Salma seems to run some sort of business from her front room, but Breche isn’t too concerned with explaining her life. She gets changed into a tracksuit to go for a walk, gets changed again and goes for a drive with her married lover Waheeb (Rabih El Zaher); although they don’t talk much, she seems happy.

Time passes. She goes to a Tupperware party, and walks out. Masturbates. Net curtains float around her house, and two peculiar women seem to follow her around — perhaps looking for gossip about Waheeb. Someone who owes her money talks about a sniper, and there’s the occasional sound of gunshot as Salma and Waheeb sit on rocks looking at a majestic waterfall. He says he doesn’t want to cause a scandal. She tells him they shouldn’t see each other any more. 

When he daughter Thuraya (Omaya Maleaeb) arrives, Riverbed’s palette suddenly darkens. We see cracks on the walls of Salma’s breeze block house. Thuraya doesn’t talk to her mother very much, but we can ascertain that she has left her husband, is pregnant, and doesn’t want the baby.

Credit goes to the technical team for the visual realisation, although editing by Rana Sabbagha seems to further obscure something which is already hard to penetrate. Breche’s feature debut wants to speak to the audience in images, narrowing its scope as it goes along until nature is all that is left as this mother and daughter tentatively approach each other through trauma.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Riverbed® today announced Riverbed Community Connect, a company-wide volunteer effort to give back to the communities where employees live and work across the world. This year, to celebrate the Company’s 20^th anniversary, Riverbed employees will participate in volunteer projects spanning 20 days – starting November 10 and concluding on November 29, Giving Tuesday – providing over 2,000 hours of community service during that time. Riverbed Community Connect, launched earlier this year, encourages volunteering at non-profit organizations, providing employees with up to five volunteer days off annually.

LinkedIn: Riverbed kicks off Community Connect initiative with ‘20 Days of Service’ in November and program provides up to five volunteer days off annually: https://rvbd.ly/3UpbEVg

“Since its founding in 2002, Riverbed has been deeply committed to community service and volunteer programs that make a positive impact on the world, on a global and local level,” said Dan Smoot, President and Chief Executive Officer of Riverbed. “It is with great pride that we launched the Community Connect initiative on the 20^th anniversary of the Company to provide employees with up to five volunteer days annually to volunteer locally in their communities or anywhere around the world. In commemorating this milestone, Riverbed is launching ‘20 days of Service’ this month, where we’ll come together as a company to provide thousands of hours of community service, and make a meaningful difference for charitable organizations that help support people – including those underserved – our communities, and important causes.”

Riverbed Community Connect volunteers will participate in group projects in the following cities:

• U.S.: San Francisco; Sunnyvale/San Jose; Bethesda, MD; New York City; Boston, MA; Reston, VA and Durham, NC
• EMEA: Barcelona; London; Munich; Bracknell, UK; Cluj, Romania and Dubai, UAE​
• APJ: Bangalore; Sydney

Additionally, many employees in smaller offices or working out of home offices are volunteering at local projects in their communities and virtually through several projects led by Goodera, an organization that matches employees to virtual volunteer opportunities.

During the Riverbed Community Connect initiative “20 Days of Service” in November to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Company, Riverbed will support these charitable organizations, as well as many others:

Over the past 20 years Riverbed has evolved into a company that is proven yet agile and trusted by thousands of partners, and market-leading customers globally – including 95% of the FORTUNE 100. Riverbed is focused on helping to make a difference and drive real impact for organizations, as they accelerate their digital strategies, and deliver seamless, secure digital experiences to users everywhere. As we enter the season of giving, Riverbed is giving employees an opportunity to make a difference in the communities we live and work in and deepening our partnerships with charities globally while organizing new volunteer efforts.

About Riverbed

Riverbed is the only company with the collective richness of telemetry from network to app to end user, that illuminates and then accelerates every interaction, so organizations can deliver a seamless digital experience and drive enterprise performance. Riverbed offers two industry-leading portfolios: Alluvio by Riverbed, a differentiated Unified Observability portfolio that unifies data, insights, and actions across IT, so customers can deliver seamless, secure digital experiences; and Riverbed Acceleration, providing fast, agile, secure acceleration of any app, over any network, to users anywhere. Together with our thousands of partners, and market-leading customers globally – including 95% of the FORTUNE 100 – we empower every click, every digital experience. Riverbed. Empower the Experience. Learn more at riverbed.com

Riverbed, Alluvio and certain other terms used herein are trademarks of Riverbed Technology LLC. All other trademarks used herein belong to their respective owners.

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Authorities are investigating the discovery of a body near the Los Angeles Riverbed in Long Beach. 

The body was discovered at around 6:20 a.m. near the riverbed and Pacific Coast Highway, according to Long Beach Police Department. 

The circumstances surrounding the incident were not immediately clear. 

Police did not disclose the gender or identity of the deceased person. 

As investigators surveyed the scene, they directed traffic away from the area.