A Maid for Each

Labor or Slavery: Domestic Workers in Lebanon

This award-winning film follows domestic workers in Lebanon who are segmented along national and ethnic origins, trapped in a system in which the employer is master and the worker the property. A MAID FOR EACH introduced us to Zein, who owns a domestic worker agency in Beirut. He arranges for Asian and African women to work in Lebanese households and assists his clients in choosing "mail-order" housemaids that will best suit their needs.

Winner of the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Winner of the Human Rights Award at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.

"A film that is extraordinarily elegant and brave in its simplicity. The brilliant camerawork and [editing] lead us through the film with precise consistency... depicting the complex and brutal exploitation in such a way that only towards the end we believe to have understood its entire scope." - Berlinale Film Festival

"Maher Abi Samra's disturbing documentary takes a cool-headed look at a Beirut agency that traffics--a charged word but a pretty accurate one--in domestic help. Watching the film feels like viewing a chilling reality through a two-way mirror... Abi Samra's artful, formalistic methodology succinctly exposes the dehumanization process." - Variety