The Garden Cinema introduces the UK’s first full season of Lebanese cinema. In contrast to recent simplistic, sensationalist, and often misleading news headlines, this selection of films will showcase an authentic range of stories, celebrating the country’s new voices with Q&As, live music, Lebanese wine, and famous regional delicacies!
The turn of the century was a pivotal moment for Lebanese cinema. Western co-productions looked to the Levant for projects to support that would appeal to an international audience, something which would later be labelled the ‘Postcards Strategy’ by academic Wissam Mouawad. However, in the following decades, a newer cinema emerged, which saw filmmakers try to break free from such financial considerations. Conflict is not necessarily a defining element in these films, and traumatic periods serve more as omnipresent backdrops. As a result, Lebanese cinema is often self-referential, elliptical, and darkly funny, reflecting a society that keeps ploughing on, and finding resilience in humour and joy. This season aims to celebrate that spirit and introduce new audiences to a film scene that is capable of crafting powerful stories of life on the ground, whether personal, relatable, experimental or comedic.
Shorts – cheaper to make, quicker to shoot, and easier to distribute across borders – are prolific. To reflect this we have compiled three programmes. The first, Panorama, will open the season, with festival award winners of the past ten years, including the Palme d’Or winning Waves 98, Clermont-Ferrand winner If the Sun Drowned Into an Ocean of Clouds by dark comedy master Wissam Charaf, and the highly amusing festival hit Sisters of The Rotation. The programme will run twice, back-to-back on 7 June, with ticket-holders offered Lebanese wine, and sampler mezza plates provided Beirut Garden.
A second shorts programme will focus on London-based women Lebanese filmmakers recounting stories from their homeland. The Beirut Film Society will present two screenings as part of their Lebanon Cinema Days in the UK programme, which aims to bring Lebanese stories to new audiences. An evening of shorts on 29 June is followed by Lebanon’s 2016 Oscar entry Void (Waynon) on 11 July, showcasing an award-winning performance by Diamand Bou Abboud. Nearly decade after that triumph, Diamand returns as the lead of crowd-pleaser Arze, which will have its UK premiere here on 13 June. More acerbic is Lucien Bourjeily’s Heaven Without People, with razor-sharp dialogue and simmering tensions during a large family Easter gathering – the screening on 19 June will be preceded by a oud performance. Also playing is Venice Critics’ Week award winner All This Victory, with an introduction by researcher Jamal Awar, who will provide context on Lebanese cinema’s treatment of the Civil War.
We will hold a fundraiser screening of Sirens, a punchy doc about the country’s first all-female queer band. Due to popular demand, we are delighted to once again show Nadine Labaki’s all time classic, the soul affirming beauty salon-set Caramel. Collective Films of Resistance are bringing Wild Flowers: Women of South Lebanon by legendary Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri and Jean Chamoun to The Garden Cinema. The screening will be introduced by Dr Kareem Estefan, who will explore the interconnected communities of Lebanon and Palestine. We are also bringing back the very popular Palestinian sage tea to mark the event.
Throughout the season, Lebanese wine will be available at the bar, as well as mixed nuts by Al Rifai.
This season is curated in collaboration with programmer Claire Nicolas, and in partnership with the Beirut Film Society, with support from The Arab Film Club, Films of Resistance.
