Behind the silver screen

“The movie business is a gambling business,” says Salim Ramia, chief executive of Grand Cinemas. “When you buy a movie for a million dollars before it is even filmed, isn’t that a gamble?” Indeed, Ramia himself placed big bets by selling his successful company in the United Arab Emirates to start up the same business in Lebanon and the Levant. Yet, he has faith his lucky star will shine through. Beirut to Dubai and back Ramia is no stranger to the film business in Lebanon, he had a film distribution office called Phoenix Film Distribution in Hamra during the civil war back in the 1980s. “In 1986, the office was occupied by one of the warring political factions, and it was then that I took the decision to move back to Dubai, as Lebanon was in a state of war and there was no room for professional growth, ” says