Memory and Hope: Lebanese Wars

Lebanon has faced long periods of martial law during the past few decades. This year at Cannes two films present not only these wars themselves, but the human memories and hopes related to peoples’ experiences of them. Waltz with Bashir, an animated documentary directed by Ari Folman and I want to see, a documentary feature film made by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, introduce us to different stories of conflicts lived through in the same region, in different time periods.

In Waltz with Bashir, Folman investigates a black hole in his memory that goes all the way back to 1982, and the massacres in Southern Lebanon. An ex-Israeli soldier, the brutal wartime experiences have been wiped from his mind. He starts to explore his own past by making a series of interviews which build up, little by little, pictures of Ari’s and his friends’ experiences. Using captivating hand-drawn animation as a tool for storytelling, Waltz with Bashir is a thought-provoking and strong emotional journey into the human memory.

I want to see documents another journey - through the remains of Beirut after the heavy bombings on the city in 2006. Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige collaborated with Catherine Deneuve, who visited Lebanon wanting to see how it was there after the conflicts. In the film, Deneuve meets another Lebanese director, Rabih Mroué, in Beirut, and their road story soon transforms into a trail following his recollections and an exploration of the recent history of the region. The reportage-like style of the film, the scenes of destroyed buildings, the film crew’s appearance on the scene… I want to see involves the spectator as if they were watching footage from their own past.

A director finding his own history in Waltz with Bashir by talking to former comrades, in contrast with a real visit to the region where the director lived and experienced the war in I want to see. The former fills in the blanks in the protagonist’s mind through other people’s memories, while the latter creates a physical blank which only the individual’s memory can fill - the street of Rabih’s childhood does not exist anymore. Whether the destruction of war leaves holes in people’s psychological landscapes or in their real physical environments, sooner or later these spaces will start to rise back up to the surface.

Esra Demirkiran & Helena Mielonen