12 TTHHEE DDAAIILLYY SSTTAARR saturday, december 11, 2010ARTS & CULTUREREVIEW

REVIEW

PREVIEW

When we had to leave Jaffa for Acrethere was no sense of tragedy …When in the afternoon we reachedSidon we had become refugees.

Ghassan Kanafani(1936-1972)

Palestinian writer

Just a thought

AGENDALEBANON

ART

‘Ceramic Works’Agial Art Gallery, 63 AbdelAziz Street, Hamra.December 9-15+961 1 345 213Nathalie Khayat exhibits herclay and porcelain works,showing the importance of uni-ty with the earth.

‘100 small paintings for big artcollectors’Alice Mogabgab Gallery,Achrafieh Street, AchrafiehUntil December 24+961 1 204 984/+961 3 210424Alice Mogabgab Galleryshows a collection of small-sized paintings from Westernand Oriental painters.

‘Q Calling the Shots’Q Contemporary Art Gallery, Beirut Tower, Ground FloorZeitoune Street, Across fromBeirut Marina, Solidere.Until December 24+961 3 300 520A series of architectural pho-tography exhibitions fromleading international artists.

‘Art Mix Volume 2’Joanna Seikaly Art Gallery,Gouraud Street, GemmayzehDecember 13-17, call for times+961 70 776 711A series of different artisticworks by various artists suchas Tanya Traboulsi, JoeKesrouani and Joanna Seikaly.

'Amazon, Colors and Beauty’Holy Spirit Kaslik University(USEK), Main Campus, KaslikUntil December 20+961 3 243 114The Latin American Studiesand Cultures Center and theUSEK library present this exhi-bition of Jacques Menassa’sphotographies on the Amazon’sculture, linguistics and music.

THEATER

‘Dissonance of Fights’Gulbenkian Theatre, LAUBeirut CampusUntil December 12, 8:30 pm+961 1 784 464Inspired by texts written byNasri Sayegh, Nagy Souratypresents this collective cre-ation, exploring themes of vio-lence, fighting, addiction, iden-tity and humanity.

‘Return to Haifa’Babel Theater, Marignan Center, HamraDecember 11-19, 8:30 pm+961 1 744 033Babel Theater presents GhassanKanafani’s tragedy of Safiyaand Said, a young Palestiniancouple who were forced to leavetheir baby when they fled theirhome of Haifa in 1948. Twentyyears later they return and findmajor changes.

WORKSHOP

‘Spring Awakening’The Sunflower Cultural Space,Sami el-Solh Boulevard, TayyounehDecember 10-11, call for times+961 1 381 290In connection with the theatricalrepresentation, this workshop –for students aged 15 to 18 –offers a further analysis of ado-lescence, the subject of the play.

FILM

‘The Last Laugh’Metropolis Cinema Sofil,AchrafiehDecember 11, 7 pm+961 1 293 212The Goethe-Institut Beirut andthe Russian Cultural Centerpresent German F.W Murnau’s1924 drama about an old man’sdecadence after being fired.

Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18) Pisces (Feb. 19 – Mar. 20)

Unsolved problems and the hidden orbehind-the-scenes aspects of a situationinterest you today, and you delve andprobe until you discover the truth.

Now is not a good time to act like a lem-ming. If you’re acting with friends inunfamiliar places, doing unfamiliarthings should set alarm bells off.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21) Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19)

If an old friend returns, you may bemore interested in them relating storiesof their exploits rather than any soundadvice they have for you today.

Your big brain is throbbing with new ideas– and more are on the way! You may findthem in totally unexpected places, soopen up and keep paying attention.

Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22) Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21)

You feel needier than usual today. Youmay feel the need to care for others orto have them care for you – perhaps ona very private level.

Before you call the whole thing off,make a point of chatting with the expertsor those who have been involved withthe organization a lot longer than you.

Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22) Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22)

It is possible to stand back and take alook at your aesthetic accomplishmentsand generally take self-congratulatorystock of your surroundings.

It may do more harm than good if youhold back affection from someone whohas unintentionally hurt your feelingsrecently. Safeguard your sacred space.

Gemini (May 21 – June 21) Cancer (June 22 – July 22)

Try to embrace change a bit more today– it’s coming, whether or not you’reready for it! Someone new may be try-ing to tell you something.

Your thinking is running deeper thanusual today, and that could make forsome really interesting sessions withcoworkers or neighbors.

Aries (Mar. 21 – April 19) Taurus (April 20 – May 20)

You need to fully engage yourself. It maybe at work, at home or on the commute,but you have nothing to gain by turninginto a conscientious objector now.

You are the true visionary in whatevergroup you find yourself in today, sobelieve in your ideas and let them fly free!Your mental energy is nearly unstoppable.

HOROSCOPE

‘Battleship Potemkin’ trains its guns on BeirutJim QuiltyDaily Star staff

BEIRUT: Film is a young form,yet it is old enough that momentsfrom iconic movies have seeped,like lines of Shakespeare, into

the corners of pop cultural memory.So it’s probably true that more people

recall a baby carriage, rolling unattend-ed down a long flight of steps – its infantpassenger destined for the same fate asits unfortunate mother – than the nameof the film in which it appeared.The movie in which it appeared was

not “The Untouchables,” Brian De Pal-ma’s Kevin Costner vehicle from 1987 –which made a brazen Hollywood hom-age to the original sequence. The unat-tended baby carriage was first imaginedfor “The Battleship Potemkin”(1925/26), the second feature film of a27-year-old Sergei Eisenstein.A gloriously restored 35mm print of

“Potemkin” was screened for Beirutaudiences at the Metropolis Cinema-Sofil Thursday evening. The silent filmwas accompanied by Beirut-based jazz

and contemporary classical composerJoelle Khoury. She performed EdmundMeisel’s original 70-minute score forfull orchestra on piano, a demanding taskthat she carried off with aplomb.The projection-performance was the

opening salvo in “Early Masterpieces ofGerman and Russian Cinema,” a nine-film program of Russian and Germanfilms that has been organized by Beirut’sGoethe Institut, the Russian Cultural Cen-ter and Metropolis.As the Russian Cultural Center repre-

sentative pointed out in the pre-projectionformalities, this screening series is possi-ble because of the “heroic” efforts ofGoethe Institut director Farid Majari – aMoscow cinema school graduate, it seems– who, in a grueling eight-hour-long strug-gle, saw to it that the Metropolis projec-tors received the modifications needed toproperly project these restored reels.Taken from the annals of pre-Soviet

history, “Potemkin” is a five-chapteraccount of an episode from the 1905Russian Revolution, when the Tsar’sBlack Sea fleet followed the ship inrevolt against its corrupt officer corps.

For the cognoscenti, Eisenstein is ademigod of film history and “Potemkin”one of the central pillars of film history,indeed the history of film experimenta-tion. For those suspicious of such labels,it will be a surprise to learn that – even ifyou’ve already seen this movie on DVDsomewhere – the 35-mm projection is asgripping as almost anything you’ll find inthe commercial cinema today.Like the other films in the program,

“Potemkin” was introduced by Munich-based film historian and documentarianAlexander Schwarz, an authority in ear-ly German and Russian film. Schwarz’sinsights into the tortured process inwhich the film was made, dismemberedby nervous German censors, rose to fameanyway, then, finally, restored, were asentertaining as they were informative.Schwarz is currently preparing a Berlin

International Film Festival retrospectiveon the Meshrabpom-Film studio. Head-quartered in Berlin and with productionfacilities in Moscow, Meshrabpom(Workers’ International Relief) wasresponsible for “Potemkin” and severalother works in the Metropolis program.

That program includes a second cine-concert (Saturday) this time pairingFriedrich W Murnau’s “The Last Laugh(1924) with the free-improv country-blues stylings of American guitaristMike Cooper.Another highlight of the program is a

three-film selection of film adaptationsof works by Leo Tolstoy – Fydor Otsep’s“The Living Corpse” (1929), AlexanderSanin’s “Polikushka” (1922), and

Clarence Brown’s “Anna Karenina”(1935) – timed to commemorate the cen-tenary of Tolstoy’s death.A fine selection of films, which the

rain will make all the more enjoyable.“Early Masterpieces of German andRussian Cinema” continues at MetropolisCinema-Sofil until 13 December. For moreinformation see www.metropolis.net andwww.goethe.org/beirut.

Annie SlemrodDaily Star staff

BEIRUT: Since his death at theage of 36, Palestinian writerGhassan Kanafani has becomesomething of a legend. Journal-

ist, literary critic, novelist and spokesmanof the Palestinian Front for the Liberationof Palestine, he produced an extraordinarybody of work in his short life. Born in 1936 in Akka (Acre), Manda-

tory Palestine, Kanafani fled to Lebanonin 1948. After time spent in Syria andKuwait, he settled in Beirut in 1960,where he married the Danish-born AniKanafani (nee Hoover), who still con-trols the rights to Kanafani’s works.Before his assassination by car bomb

in 1972, in an explosion presumed tohave been carried out by, or for, Israeliintelligence, Kanafani published whatwould become one of his best-knownand loved works, the novella “Return toHaifa.” As Ani Kanafani, who stillresides in Beirut, recently told The Dai-ly Star, “it is one of his essential works.” A stage play of “Return to Haifa”

begins a nine-night run at Beirut’s BabelTheater Saturday evening. Theatrical

adaptations of “Return to Haifa” havestaged in France, Belgium, Italy, andIsrael – but never before in Lebanon.“Return to Haifa” tells the story of Said

and Safiya, a Palestinian couple who fledHaifa in 1948, leaving their baby sonKhaldun behind. As the title suggests,they return to Haifa in June 1967, to findtheir son alive and living in their house.He is now called Dov, having been

adopted by Israeli Jews of Polish origin,and he is a reservist in the Israeli Army.The reunion with his birth parents pro-vokes feelings of anger, resentment, andpolitical consciousness within bothKhaldun/Dov and Said.Ani Kanafani chose Beirut-based vet-

eran Lina Abyad for the daunting task ofadapting Kanafani’s work for the stage.Having recently directed Beirut produc-tions of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s “TheHouse of Bernardo Alba” and “Kafka,”Abyad is no stranger to adapting difficultmaterial for the Beirut stage.That said, adapting “Return to Haifa,”

as Abyad told The Daily Star, has beenan especially trying experience. “With atext that is so difficult and so well knownyou have the impression that, no matterwhat you do, you are going to betray itin one way or another.“It has been a very moving and diffi-

cult play to work on, because there is thepersonal level of [Said and Safiya]…and then it echoes in the political situa-tion [of the Palestinians].”Abyad is forthright about the many

challenges of adapting Kanafani’s text

for the stage. “The text is quite dry [inhow] it is written,” she says. “There is ahuge difference between the written andthe oral style. And we tried as much aspossible … to make this talking humid,to make it everyday. So we did lots ofimprov about this.”The adaptation is highly conscious of

the politics of movement, and Abyad andher cast have carefully chosen the actors’every gesture. “Are we going to have the Israelis sit-

ting down, or standing up? Are they goingto sit at the same table or not? Even some-thing that is as simple as that, in any [oth-er] play you would put … [a] Palestinianand this Israeli sitting together around atable and discussing. In this play, it imme-diately goes somewhere else.”This production of “Return to Haifa”

will be as much Palestinian as it isLebanese. All of the actors save HusseinNakkal (Khaldun/Dov) are Palestinianand the characters will speak in Pales-tinian dialect. “It is quite strong to hear[Palestinian dialect],” Abyad notes,“because we hear it and we associate itwith different things.”After the play’s nine-day run at the

Babel, it will be performed for one nightat the UNESCO Palace for an audiencefrom Beirut’s Palestinian camps. “Thereare lots of artistic activities in the campsbut they are only toward the camp,”Abyad continues. “Lebanese people arenot involved in these activities. They arevery much secluded or elitist and it isvery interesting to have these Palestini-

ans telling their story.”“It is very important that [Palestini-

ans] attend the performance,” saysKanafani. The show will also tour in thecamps of the Bekaa and the north andsouth of Lebanon.At the end of “Return to Haifa,” Said

calls for his other son Khalid to take uparms and become a fida’i [fighter].Abyad herself is “against any sort ofarmed struggle.” She says the play is“not a call for war but a call for aware-ness … what kind of struggle this is[now], is the new question.”In part to make it clear that Kanafani’s

work is a product of a particular time,Abyad has taken pains to make her playvery much a period piece – the actiontakes place on June 30, 1967. With cos-tume, set and props designers ClaireMeshref, Hana Fakhouri and GhinaSibaii, Abyad has found clothes anditems that she hopes will place the playin its appropriate time and context.In Abyad’s interpretation, Kanafani’s

text is as much about failure as it is aboutstruggle. Said and Safiya return to Haifaafter 20 years, having lost their son, theirhome and their country. When they leaveHaifa, they no longer have the illusion ofKhaldun – they know he has become theIsraeli Dov. “You’ve spent 20 years crying,” the son

angrily tells Said and Safiya. “Is that whatyou have to say to me now? Is that yourpathetic broken-down weapon?”This depiction of the failure of the

Palestinian cause was vivid for readers in1970. The passage of time – during whichcalls for a “just peace” have mutated intotoday’s perpetually stalled “peaceprocess” – has only made it more so.Ani Kanafani scheduled Saturday’s

staging to correspond with the anniversaryof UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Passed December 11, 1948, nearly sev-

en months after the state of Israel was cre-ated, Article 11 states “refugees wishing toreturn to their homes and live at peace withtheir neighbors should be permitted to doso at the earliest practicable date.”This has been widely interpreted as

acknowledging Palestinian refugees’“right of return.” Kanafani’s work is a political animal

in itself, but performing it on this daywill surely give it deeper resonance.“We believe it is very much neces-

sary,” Ani Kanafani says of staging herhusband’s work here after so many years.“It is very much appropriate. It’s a must.”“Return to Haifa” continues until Decem-ber 19 at the Babel Theater. For moreinformation, call + 961 1 744 033.

‘Return to Haifa’ at the BabelGhassan Kanafani’snovella will speak toits Lebanese audiencein Palestinian

Ghannam Ghannam (Said), Raeda Taha (Safiya), and Alliya Khalidi (Miriam) in rehearsals for “Return to Haifa.”

CAIRO: The 34th Cairo InternationalFilm Festival (CIFF) drew to a close atthe city’s Opera House Thursday with agala-awards ceremony that became asalute to the Egyptian film industry and,in effect, the city of Alexandria.For the first time in 14 years, the

Golden Pyramid for best film in CIFF’sInternational Completion went to anEgyptian film, Khaled al-Haggar’s “Al-Shooq” (Lust). The decision came as ashock to some critics at the festival, forwhom it was not the best Egyptian filmin competition, let alone the best film.One of Egypt’s two completion films

to be set in the Mediterranean port city ofAlexandria, “Al-Shooq” is a melodramaabout a destitute mother of three namedUmm Shooq (Sawsan Badr). After losingher young son to kidney failure, whosetreatment she cannot finance, UmmShooq is transformed into a manipulativecapitalist and, ultimately, destroyed.The top prize in CIFF’s Arab Film

Competition went to another Egyptianfilm, Ahmad Abdulla’s “Microphone,” acritical and audience favorite that took thetop prize at the Carthage film festival ear-lier this year. “Microphone” depicts thestory of the return of a young expat Egypt-ian (Khaled Abu Naga) to Alexandria andhis discovery of the city’s thriving, alter-native youth art and music scene.In CIFF’s International Digital Film

Competition, the top award went to“Joy” by Dutch writer-director Mike DeJong, a story about a young woman’ssearch for her biological mother.Bulgaria’s Svetoslav Ovcharov took

two awards for his film “Voice Over” –the International Competition’s BestDirector prize and the FIPRESCI (Inter-national Federation of Film Critics) prize.Lebanon’s George Hachem, who

wrote “Stray Bullet,” shared the prize forBest Script with Iraq’s Mohammad al-Daradji, co-writer of “Son of Babylon.”The award for Best Female Actor was

shared by Badr, the star of “Al-Shooq,”and the iconic French actress IsabelleHuppert, for her role in “Copacabana.” The Best Actor award was also

shared. Egypt’s Amr Waked and Italy’sAlessandro Gassman were lauded fortheir performances in “Il Padre E LoStraniero,” (The Father and the Foreign-er), by Italian director Ricky Tognazzi.Earlier in CIFF, Cairo Film Connec-

tions selected the best of the 10 scriptsbeing considered for pre-productionfunding. Egyptian director Ayten Amintook the $18,000 prize for her script “69Messaha” (69 Al-Mesaha Square), acomedy about a 62-year-old man with aterminal illness. – The Daily Star

Egyptian takesGolden Pyramidat Cairo film fest

Mashrou3 Leila return to theirbirthplace, all grown upSimona SikimicDaily Star staff

BEIRUT: Coming of age is commemo-rated in societies across the world as amoment when adolescence makes wayfor the responsibilities, but also free-doms of adulthood.In Japan all those turning 20 are final-

ly allowed to smoke, drink alcohol andvote, and all “new citizens” are given asum of money from the state to cementtheir stake in society.In Papua New Guinea, boys entering

adult society are said to parade around inconical hats kitted with long leaves thatreach the ground. African Pygmies aresaid to believe the Spirit of the Forest rit-ually invades the tribe to kill the boys inorder to promulgate their rebirth as men. A slightly more conventional unveil-

ing took place in Assembly Hall atAmerican University Beirut (AUB)Thursday, when six former students –Haig Papazian, Hamed Sinno, CarlGerges, Omaya Malaeb, Andre Chedidand Firas Abou Fakher – took to thestage of the grand church-like structurefor a rare hour-long charity concert.Better known as Mashrou3 Leila, the

group of former architecture and designstudents have become the darlings of theBeirut new music scene, rising from anow notorious gig at Demco Steel Ware-

house in Bourj Hammoud this time lastyear, to play to a full house at the ByblosInternational Festival in July, with PrimeMinister Saad Hariri in the audience.Held in support of the Standing Com-

mittee on Reproductive Health IncludingAIDS (SCODA), a subsidiary of theLebanese Medical Student’s InternationalCommittee (LEMSIC), Thursday’s eventwas a more somber occasion than theband’s customary performances, whichusually find hundreds of fans, lubricated

by cheap alcohol, jumping in unison.Dressed in sharp black suits, white

shirts and simple red AIDS ribbons,Mashrou3 Leila took advantage of thecharity concert to shine, displaying theirmusical diversity and career potential.Compensating for the absence of

band’s bassist, Ibrahim Badr (currentlystudying abroad), was a string septet,which accompanied the band through alltheir hits and added a host of classicalintroductions to Mashrou3 Leila’s other-wise more contemporary Arabic rock.Despite Sinno’s soulful and energetic

vocals and the undeniable talent of

Papazian, whose folkloric jaunts on theviolin penetrate and define many of thegroup’s best-known tracks, few of thegroup’s members could be described asclassically trained musicians.Yet, with the help of computer pro-

grams, their compositions for the septetwere seamless, mature and perfectlyemphasized by an intelligent song selec-tion, which included several more reflec-tive numbers such as “Shim al-Yasmine.”The band’s well-known social

activism and support for gay rights – Sin-no proudly donned a rainbow flag at theband’s Byblos performance – have linkedthe group to a liberal fan base, but the easewith which the band adapted to its newchosen style and setting, which they suc-ceeded in making their own, won overeven senior members of the audience.Rising in unison, chanting “We want

more,” the 850-strong crowd could not getenough. Members lingered around theauditorium to chat to the group who, evi-dently feeling at home, later strolled roundthe campus greeting friends and family.With the venue selling out days in

advance and the concert raising well over$20,000 for SCODA, Mashrou3 Leilahas demonstrated its ability to draw andcaptivate an audience for a good cause –and created expectations it will catapultits youthful and alternative Beirut imag-ination much further afield.

It was a more somberoccasion than the band’scustomary performances

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