كوستا برافا، لبنان

a film by Mounia Akl

By a strange coincidence, the film I watched just after Paris, Texas was named in a similarly oxymoronic fashion: Costa Brava, Lebanon. I don’t want to give away any spoilers; suffice to say that Mounia Akl’s debut feature, starring Nadine Labaki (Caramel) and Saleh Bakri, did not disappoint. Watch it.

El juego de las golondrinas

by Zeina Abirached
translated by Lucía Bermúdez Carballo

Beirut, 1984. Zeina’s parents went to visit her grandma. And they are still not back. The neighbours come to stay with the kids.

This beautiful book — yes, war is ugly, but books about war can be beautiful — introduces the characters that also appear in Me acuerdo: Beirut.

More images of the English-language edition of this book.

Me acuerdo: Beirut

by Zeina Abirached
translated by Lucía Bermúdez Carballo

Nothing distinguishes memories from ordinary moments. Only later do they make themselves known, from their scars.

Chris Marker

During the war, Zeina’s father got into the habit of listening to music at high volume. For example, to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Or to Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale by Berlioz. While Zeina preferred Ayam El Loulou by Sabah.

More images of the English-language edition of this book

Unwrapping KitKat. The nails of Florence Griffith Joyner. How to make a paper boat. Our memory is amazing. The earlier work of the author of El piano oriental is a charming memoir you’re bound to fall in love with.

El piano oriental

by Zeina Abirached

Un piano oriental... Esa extraña yuxtaposición de dos visiones del mundo que nada parece poder unir, su música doble, el sonido ligero del contoneo imperceptible de una nota en medio de una frase, los llevo dentro de mí. Ser un piano oriental es abrir una ventana en París y esperar ver el mar tras los edificios haussmanianos más allá, incluso.

It called to me from the very same comic book stand in the library that is responsible for all of my graphic novel reading. Drawn in bold black and white, it reminded me of Persepolis although even a quick leaf through was enough to reveal the stylistic differences.

There are two intertwined storylines in El piano oriental. One is the story of Abdallah Kamanja, inspired by the real-life Abdallah Chahine, a Lebanese musician and inventor of the titular “oriental piano”. Another is the autobiographical one, of a girl growing between Beirut and Paris. The leitmotif, underpinned by the author’s ingenious use of text as a graphical device, is that of bilinguality: East meets West, quarter-tones meet semitones, Arabic meets French... A beautiful book.

As far as I know, Le piano oriental was also published in Spanish, German and Italian but not English (yet). Here you can see some pages of the book in English translation by Edward Gauvin.

Sabra Zoo

by Mischa Hiller

Beirut, Summer 1982. We all know what is going to happen in Sabra and Shatila. Ivan, the teenage protagonist and narrator of Sabra Zoo, does not. So he is “simply” doing his jobs, of varying dangerousness, all the while trying to lose his virginity.

As is the case with so many things I read and watch, I first learned about this book from The Big Issue. And the novel did not disappoint. It has everything: love, suspense, tragedy, hope and some very English humour, all masterfully combined and developed in space of just over two hundred pages.

‘Ivan? It is you, isn’t it?’ It was my English teacher, Mr Brampton, who had been teaching us right up until the first air raids this summer. He used to board at the school. ‘Is the school still standing?’ I asked. Thinking of its position on the south side of the city I imagined it must have been in the front line at some point. ‘It’s still there, but the Jew boys took it over and crapped in the new chemistry lab and headmaster’s office. Shocking behaviour. I’d write to The Times about it if it would do any good.’ He shook his head and I watched his jowls move. ‘I couldn’t believe that professional soldiers could behave that way.’ He pursed his lips as if this was the worst outrage of the whole war. As if bombing and shelling civilians was all right but shitting in a school tipped the balance of unacceptable behaviour.

سكر بنات

a film by Nadine Labaki

Sukkar banat (Caramel) is a Lebanese movie directed by Nadine Labaki (who also stars in the film as Layale). There’s not much of a plot, just some beginnings or ends of love stories. The scene where Nisrine (Yasmine Elmasri), aka “Julie Pompidou”, is getting ready to become a virgin again, is hilarious. The one where Layale is waiting, in vain, for her married lover to turn up, is heartbreaking. If I had to choose my favourite character, it would be Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) — the one who can rev up the generator. A film full of longing, humour, sadness and hope; a work of beauty.