Middle East - Anthony Ham [346]
Literature
Though for much of the 20th century Beirut was the publishing powerhouse of the Middle East, it suffered during the civil war and much of its recent literary output has been shaped by this long drawn-out and horrific event. Even today, a great deal of Lebanon’s literary output remains concerned with themes drawn from these 15 years of hardship.
Of the writers who remained in Lebanon during the civil war, Emily Nasrallah is a leading figure, and her novel Flight Against Time is highly regarded. Those who work overseas include London-based Tony Hanania, born in 1964 and author of the 1997 Homesick and 2000 Eros Island, and Amin Maalouf, whose most enchanting book, The Rock of Tanios, is set in a Lebanese village where the Sheikh’s son disappears after rebelling against the system.
Of those authors most widely available in translation, Lebanon’s two major figures are Elias Khoury and feminist author Hanan al-Shaykh. Al-Shayk’s Story of Zahra is a harrowing account of the civil war, while her Beirut Blues is a series of long letters that contrast Beirut’s cosmopolitan past with the book’s war-torn present. Elias Khoury has published 10 novels, many available in translation: his 1998 novel Gate of the Sun has achieved particular international acclaim.
Poet Khalil Gibran (1883–1931; for more, Click here) remains the celestial light in Lebanon’s poetry scene. Interestingly, today poetry is once again flourishing in the largely Shiite south, partly due to a movement known as Shu’ara al-Janub (Poets from the South), for whom poetry has become a means of expressing the frustrations and despair of life in that most war-ravaged of regions.
Cinema & TV
Lebanese cinema managed to survive the raw civil war years and is today reappearing with vigour and verve, despite frequently difficult circumstances. Docudays (www.docudays.com), Beirut’s annual documentary festival, is highly regarded internationally and attracts a global crowd, while several film academies in the city churn out young hopefuls. A particular recent cinematic highlight occurred in 2007, when two Lebanese directors, Nadine Labaki and Danielle Arbid, made it to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for their respective films Caramel and Un Homme Perdu, Caramel dealing daringly with inter-religious marriage and lesbianism.
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TOP 10 GREAT READS
Here’s some fact, some fiction to accompany any journey through Lebanon.
Sitt Marie Rose: A Novel (1982), by Etel Adnan
The Stone of Laughter (1998), by Hoda Barakat
The Rock of Tanios (1994), by Amin Maalouf
Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut 1982 (1982), by Mahmoud Darwish
Death in Beirut (1976), by Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad
Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), by Robert Fisk
Bliss Street (2004), by Kristin Kenway
Beirut Blues (1994), by Hanan al-Shayk
The Prophet (1923), by Khalil Gibran
Lebanon: A House Divided (2006), by Sandra Mackey
MUSTN’T-MISS MOVIES
If you get the chance, don’t fail to look up some of these cinematic treasures.
Towards the Unknown (1957), directed by Georges Nasser
West Beirut (1998), directed by Ziad Duweyri
The Little Wars (1982), directed by Maroun Baghdadi
The Broken Wings (1962), directed by Yousef Malouf
In the Shadows of the City (2000), directed by Jean Chamoun
Caramel (2007), directed by Nadine Labaki
Bosta (2005), directed by Philippe Aractingi
Giallo (2005), directed by Antoine Waked
Bint el-Haress (1967), directed by Henry Barakat
Harab Libnan (2001), directed by Omar al-Issawi
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The greatest of the cinematic lates was undoubtedly Georges Nasser, whose tragic 1958 Ila Ayn? (Whither?) is a classic of Lebanese cinema, and became the first to represent Lebanon in the Cannes festival. Later, the civil war temporarily brought Lebanon’s film