This is a conversation with Lebanese director Ely Dagher. He is the director of the Palme D’Or-winning Waves ’98, one of my favorite short films. He also has an upcoming feature film called The Sea Ahead.
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Topics discussed:
Waves ’98
The image of the city
The 2015 ‘You Stink’ Lebanon uprising: context/background
The feeling of history repeating itself: Waves ’98 features the 1998 waste crisis which led to the 2015 waste crisis (which led to the uprising)
Inter-generational anxiety: ‘I don’t want to end up like them’
On resilience and why it’s a failed notion
The ‘ghostly figure’ in literature and movies, including in Lebanon
Haunting from the future, the feel of being stuck (permanent liminality)
The post-August 2020 port of Beirut moment
Interesting comparisons between Lebanon and Hong Kong, and their relationship with the past and future
How do we live day to day while also being in a state of anxiety? (his upcoming film)
How Beirut is portrayed in Waves ’98 and how Beirut has changed since the 90s
The relationship to the city and the sea in Beirut
Beirut as a ghost town
Hauntings in Waves ’98 and in real life; cyclical hauntings
Our peculiar relationship with Television
Our complicated relationship with the sea growing up in post-1990s Lebanon
The politics of decay (my essay on the topic)
war/post-war vs war/not-war
Is there a way out of that cyclical haunting?
Recommended Books & Movies
The Agony of Power by Jean Baudrillard
The music is by Tarabeat.
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