Zeid Hamdan | Selamnesh
Zeid Hamdan's "Selamnesh" - how Lebanon's underground godfather composed Ethiopian peace into a film score during Beirut's darkest crisis for a love story the city didn't want to see.
Song Link → https://song.link/selamnesh
Story Behind “Selamnesh”
When Beirut’s Underground Met Ethiopian Peace
December 2021. Zeid Hamdan sat in his Lebanese Underground Studio in Geitawi, Beirut, working on music for a love story most Lebanese wouldn’t acknowledge. Director Wissam Charaf needed a score for Dirty Difficult Dangerous - a film about a Syrian refugee falling for an Ethiopian domestic worker on Beirut’s streets. Two people the city treated as invisible, searching for dignity in a place that offered none.
Hamdan chose “Selamnesh” as the title. In Ethiopian Amharic, ሰላምነሽ means “You are peace” - addressed to a woman. For Mehdia, the film’s Ethiopian protagonist trapped in Lebanon’s kafala sponsorship system, the word represented everything her life lacked: safety, dignity, freedom.
The film would premiere at Venice Film Festival in August 2022, winning the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film. But in December 2021, Hamdan was just trying to create music that could bridge two vastly different worlds without falling into stereotypes.
The Godfather of Lebanese Underground Tackles Film Scoring
By 2021, Hamdan had earned his reputation. CNN named him one of eight leading lights in Lebanese culture. He’d co-founded Soapkills in 1997, pioneering what French critics called “oriental trip-hop.” He’d produced groundbreaking work with artists from Egypt to Guinea. He’d already scored Nadine Labaki’s Oscar-nominated Capernaum in 2018.
Film scoring demanded different skills than producing albums. Working with Charaf meant serving narrative without overwhelming it, representing cultures without resorting to sonic tourism. Hamdan’s decades of blending electronic production with traditional instrumentation prepared him for exactly this challenge.
Critics would later describe his Dirty Difficult Dangerous score as having “the right blend of traditional Levantine music and Ethiopian chanting.” That balance - cultural specificity without exoticism - defined Hamdan’s approach throughout the project.
“Selamnesh” Recording and Production Details
Composing During Beirut’s Collapse
Hamdan composed this score during one of Lebanese history’s darkest chapters. By late 2021, the financial crisis had destroyed infrastructure. Power cuts became routine. The economy collapsed. In July 2021, Hamdan made the painful decision to temporarily relocate his family, eventually moving to France in January 2022.
He composed “Selamnesh” in that window - December 2021, working in Geitawi while Beirut fell apart around him. The production circumstances forced adaptation. Hamdan had already mastered remote collaboration through pandemic-era work with Syrian singer Lynn Adib on their Bedouin Burger project.
The score had to balance intimate moments between the lovers against harsh reality. Syrian refugees facing curfews. Ethiopian workers trapped by the kafala system. Music that could acknowledge suffering without drowning in it.
Blending Musical Traditions Without Tourism
“Selamnesh” demonstrates Hamdan’s cross-cultural composition philosophy. He didn’t layer Ethiopian sounds over Levantine rhythms like ingredients in a fusion restaurant. He created something that could exist in the sonic space between cultures.
His Lebanese Underground Studio setup had long combined analog synthesizers with acoustic instruments and field recordings. For Dirty Difficult Dangerous, this approach created what critics described as music that “gives the film the right kind of mood to let it fly above the squalor of its setting.”
The track needed to work both within the film and standalone. When PopArabia released Music For Film in March 2023, “Selamnesh” proved it could do both - a brief two minutes carrying the weight of two cultures, two struggles, one impossible love.
Notes About “Selamnesh” by Zeid Hamdan
Release Date: March 9, 2023 (Music For Film album)
Film Composition: December 2021
Duration: 2:05
Genre: Film Score / World Fusion / Electronic
Album: Music For Film (track 5 of 16, 43 minutes total)
Film: Dirty Difficult Dangerous (directed by Wissam Charaf)
Producer: Zeid Hamdan
Label: PopArabia
Title Meaning: Ethiopian Amharic for “You are peace” (ሰላምነሽ)
Film Recognition: Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film (Venice 2022)
Film Premiere: August 31, 2022 (Venice International Film Festival)
Zeid Hamdan “Selamnesh” Era Details
Film Context: Dirty Difficult Dangerous
Director: Wissam Charaf (Lebanese/French)
Release: March 2022 (Venice premiere August 31, 2022)
Runtime: 83 minutes
Production Companies: Aurora Films, Intramovies, Né à Beyrouth Films
Producers: Charlotte Vincent, Katia Khazak
Screenplay: Wissam Charaf, Mariette Désert, Hala Dabaji
Cinematography: Martin Rit
Music: Zeid Hamdan
Synopsis: Ahmed, a Syrian refugee collecting scrap metal while a mysterious disease transforms his body into metal, falls for Mehdia, an Ethiopian domestic worker in indentured servitude. Their love story unfolds against Beirut’s hostility to both migrants, leading to desperate flight from the city.
Film Cast
Clara Couturet - Mehdia (Ethiopian migrant worker)
Ziad Jallad - Ahmed (Syrian refugee)
Rifaat Tarabey - Ibrahim
Darina Al Joundi - Leila
Music For Film Album Details
Release Date: March 9, 2023
Label: PopArabia
Total Duration: 43 minutes, 16 tracks
Producer: Zeid Hamdan
Concept: Collection of original film score pieces
Featured Collaborations: Nadine Labaki (”Beyrouth My Love”), Carol Abboud, Maii Waleed
Other Films Represented: Costa Brava, Lebanon, various documentaries and features
Hamdan Career Context (2018-2023)
2018: Produced score for Nadine Labaki’s Oscar-nominated Capernaum
2020-2021: Collaborated with Lynn Adib on Bedouin Burger project
March 2021: Signed publishing deal with PopArabia/Reservoir Media
May 2021: Founded Beyt Music SAS label
June 2021: Scored Costa Brava, Lebanon with track “Beirut Hobbi” (sung by Nadine Labaki)
July 2021: Decided to relocate from Beirut due to infrastructure collapse
December 2021: Composed Dirty Difficult Dangerous score including “Selamnesh”
January 2022: Moved to France
March 2022: Dirty Difficult Dangerous released, traveled to Guinea for Beyt Music production
March 2023: Released Music For Film compilation
Interesting Facts About “Selamnesh”
The Title That Names What’s Missing
“Selamnesh” - you are peace. Address a woman with those two syllables in Amharic and you’re acknowledging her humanity, her right to safety, her dignity. Everything the film’s protagonist Mehdia couldn’t find in Beirut.
The Ethiopian community in Lebanon numbers in the tens of thousands, primarily women working as domestic laborers under kafala sponsorship. Employers hold their passports. Control their movement. Director Wissam Charaf, who covered the refugee crisis as a journalist before filmmaking, saw them as modern-day Atlases - “people objectified as carrying devices,” moving through residential streets supporting elderly Lebanese while their own humanity remained invisible.
Hamdan’s title choice cuts through that invisibility. Two minutes of music named for what these workers deserve but rarely receive. The word becomes the track’s emotional core.
Music That Won Venice Without Playing Tourist
When Dirty Difficult Dangerous premiered at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori section on August 31, 2022, critics immediately singled out Hamdan’s score. Arab News praised “a wondrous score with the right blend of traditional Levantine music and Ethiopian chanting” that “gives the movie the right kind of mood to let it fly above the squalor of its setting and transform into an unforgettable love story.”
The Europa Cinemas Label jury awarded it Best European Film, noting director Charaf crafted “a very original and surprisingly uplifting film” dealing with “tragic issues that confront us all - war, refugees, trafficking - but Charaf comes up with a love story that even has strong fairy tale elements.” They specifically praised “a lightness of touch here - a pleasing lack of lecturing and some darkly funny moments.”
Hamdan’s score achieved that balance. Emotional depth without sentimentality. Cultural specificity without exoticism. When PopArabia compiled Music For Film in March 2023, “Selamnesh” demonstrated why Hamdan remains Lebanon’s most essential film composer - music that serves story while maintaining artistic integrity.
Common Questions
Q: What does “Selamnesh” mean? A: “Selamnesh” (ሰላምነሽ) is Ethiopian Amharic for “You are peace,” addressed to a woman in the second person. Zeid Hamdan chose this title for music composed for Dirty Difficult Dangerous, a film about an Ethiopian domestic worker and Syrian refugee falling in love in Beirut.
Q: Which film is “Selamnesh” from? A: “Selamnesh” was composed for Dirty Difficult Dangerous, a 2022 Lebanese-French film directed by Wissam Charaf. The film premiered at Venice International Film Festival in August 2022 and won the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film. Hamdan composed the score in December 2021 while still based in Beirut.
Q: When was “Selamnesh” released as a track? A: While Hamdan composed it in December 2021 for the film score, “Selamnesh” was officially released on March 9, 2023, as track 5 on Hamdan’s compilation album Music For Film through PopArabia label.
Q: What other films has Zeid Hamdan scored? A: Hamdan is Lebanon’s most prolific film composer. His credits include Nadine Labaki’s Oscar-nominated Capernaum (2018), Costa Brava, Lebanon (2021) with the track “Beirut Hobbi,” documentaries like Les Visages Oubliés de Palmyre for ARTE, and numerous other Lebanese and international productions.
Q: How does “Selamnesh” blend Lebanese and Ethiopian music? A: Rather than layering Ethiopian sounds over Levantine rhythms, Hamdan created music existing in the sonic space between cultures. Critics described the Dirty Difficult Dangerous score as featuring “traditional Levantine music and Ethiopian chanting” that serves the cross-cultural love story without resorting to musical stereotypes.
This piece is beautifully done. The way Hamdan turned "Selamnesh" into an actual bridge between two displacement stories rather than just using it as exotic flavor is rare. I remeber working on a project that tried blending traditional sounds and we kept falling into that tourist trap thing where everything felt ornamental. What really gets me is how he composed this while Beirut was collapsing around him in Dec 2021, that tension between creating somethign about peace when everything's chaotic prolly seeped into the score itself.