In Lebanon, for every four million inhabitants there are about 200,000 foreign domestic workers who are deprived of their basic rights and live under constant surveillance. Rather than treated as service providers, the employees are regarded more as economic goods imported by special agencies, living under conditions that resemble a modern variant of the slave trade. With the full consent of the owner Zein, Maher Abi Samra films in the offices of the El Raed Agency. A Maid for Each vividly dissects this system approved by the state, oscillating between the demands of the employers, the sales talent of the agents and the objectification of the female workforce.

Maher Abi Samra was born in Beirut in 1965. He studied Drama Arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut and Audio-Visual Studies at the Institut National de l’Image et du Son, and has worked as a photo-journalist for Lebanese newspapers and international agencies.