Exclusive – Nada Abou Farhat
Nada Abou Farhat, the lead actor of “Under the Bombs“, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, speaks exclusively to NDTV Lumiere on the movie.
The film has already been released on DVD in India by NDTV Lumiere and will premiere on their Channel on 14th Dec. 2008 at 10pm.
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The film is set in 2006, when war broke out in Lebanon. Zeina learns that her son Karim is missing. Now, with only Tony, a taxi-driver for company, she must find him in the war-torn country, before it is too late. “Under the Bombs“ was filmed on location 10 days after the war broke out in Lebanon.
In 2005 you played your first film role in Philippe Aractingi’s debut feature film Bosta. For your second feature film “Under the Bombs“ you won the Best Actress Award at the 2007 Dubai Film Festival.
Tell us about how Philippe Aractingi approached you for his second film “Under the Bombs“ and why did you decide to do this film?
I won the second prize in Algeria and I am happy for it. But first of all when I worked with Philippe in Bosta, he chose me from the many girls in the casting as he felt that I believe in my role and I don’t act, I act off course but I believe what I am seeing, I believe the character. That’s why he took me for Vola in Bosta. And throughout the work, I was listening to him and doing what he wanted me to do. That’s why I feel he called me for “Under the Bombs“.
Under the Bombs was so difficult because you know we shot live in the south and maybe Aractingi needed someone who understands him.
Why I wanted to do this movie was because this is my country and the war is in my country. I love my country and as an actress, as a human being, I wanted to do something to scream against the war. You know to show my anger and these are the same reasons why Philippe chose to do this movie and the story. So it was a need that’s why I said okay I was willing to go “Under the Bombs“ and shoot. I wanted to do something for my country.
2. The film has two main characters played by professional actors – you and Georges Khabbaz. The rest of the characters in the film were refugees, journalists, soldiers, religious people, militants who played their own roles. Can you tell us about this experience?
I found it very hard to pretend that I lost my child in front of a real woman who was telling me her real story and was telling me her sister lost her child. It was very hard and when you see real people. I was shy in the beginning. But when they knew our message that we are doing this movie for them – for the south people, I was convinced about doing this movie, doing it to show a message. The people were so positive about it; they helped me that encouraged me more and more to be 100 percent sure of my performance in front of them. I think they made the movie; we were there to show just the reality maybe in a specific way because we saw everything on documentaries and on TV live but if you see there is a story in front of you enacted, you will have another feeling. It’s a very nice experience.
3. The film didn’t have a screenplay initially. It was first shot, then written and then financed, which is very unusual for a film. What were the dialogues and scenes based on? How much of the film is improvised?
Half of the film is improvised. The whole part of the south with refugees, with militaries, with journalists, is real. We didn’t have a script. We had the idea and we had our feelings. You know our need to express and we had reality. So if I was talking to the woman I didn’t know what to answer because I didn’t know her answer.
And in the funeral for example, I was with the people and then I decided to turn away and go away and the camera followed me. This is the kind of improvisation we did. But the second part was written -you know with the Christians families, with restaurants, with gas stations, with monasteries.
4. Tell us about the story of this film and about the characters Zeina and Tony.
Zeina is a Shiite woman who lives in Dubai; she is from the south of Lebanon. She leaves her son at her sister’s house in the south for one month because she has problems with his husband. She is in divorce and the war breaks so she decides to come from Dubai to Turkey and then to Lebanon by boat and to search for her son and sister. She asks for a taxi but nobody goes to the south in this situation. Only one guy, one Christian guy, Georges Khabbaz, who is Tony in the film, he accepts to take her on this long trip to search for her son.
5. How was the collaboration with Philippe Aractingi and the rest of the team?
We were like a family; you know we were in danger and everybody was working from their heart and in a fast way. We had good communication because we didn’t have time to think about something else except what we were doing in this movie. We were a great team and Georges Khabbaz was great. He always makes us laugh. He is a comedian, a big comedian in Lebanon. With all the stress we were laughing in a way too, so it was good.
6. The film was shot ten days after war broke out in your native land Lebanon amidst the turmoil and ruin of war. Have you experienced any previous war in your country and how was it to shoot and act in the authentic location, especially with real victims? Were there any risky situations where you had to fear for your life?
Yes I experienced war. I was about 12-13 years old…it was a bad experience like everybody else’s. But it gave me something special. You know something I am doing right now, shoot a film on war, with the real people. I had this anger since I was little and now if I want to talk about the scenes with real people the worst scene and I cannot forget this was when I was walking and searching for my sister with the people in the cemetery. They were putting bodies in boxes for their family to come and to search for them, and gave them a funeral; imagine that I was there. I was smelling death, the dead people. I was touching the boxes so it was too hard for me but may be that is why I was doing the movie. I wanted to feel the same way. I can never forget the smell and after the movie I stayed two months, just thinking about what I lived in these two months. It was too hard but is fine now.
7. Your previous film Bosta, the country’s first post-war musical, was financed by Lebanese money and was the first Lebanese film to perform well in Egypt and the Gulf States. How was “Under the Bombs“ received since it is a film with political undertones?
“Under the Bombs“ is far away from politics. “Under the Bombs“ is a human movie, this is a scream against war. He took 15 prizes out of it 10 were in human right festivals. But just to tell you, it’s not political, it’s the point of view and it’s anger. It’s a scream. That’s it.
8. Many times Lebanon is presented in the media as a place where there is war and civil war, as a place that is a forcing ground for terror cells. Nadine Labaki’s wonderful film Caramel which deals with the story of 5 women in Beirut shows Muslims and Christians living peacefully together. Caramel was her directorial debut and was Lebanon’s Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008). Is this film representative of Lebanese women today?
We have many contradictions in Lebanon. We have Muslims and Christians getting along very well. And we have the opposite. So yes when we show the real life of Lebanon that means that this is real. The story of Nadine, our story. In our story at the beginning Zeina is Muslim and Tony is Christian. She doesn’t want to even look at him or shake hands because she is angry and also he is Christian- a different religion. But later on they know that if they are not together they cannot do anything, so we have both sides and this is true.
9. Nadine Labaki has acted along with you in Philippe Aractingi’s previous feature film Bosta. How was it working with her?
First of all she is a very talented person, directing and acting. She is very serious about her work and is always afraid of not doing well. She is always asking questions. It was very nice working with her.
10. What role do you think Lebanese cinema should play, and what role is it playing now?
Well you know after the war we made many movies talking about the war of 2006. But if you see now we have Caramel, we have 2-3 other movies in Lebanon talking about love stories and things other than the war. So I think this is the right way. These are the subjects that we want to see on the big screen; you know small details in society, little bit away from the war background.
11. What’s your favourite film?
Haah…too many, I like Shine for Geoffrey Rush.
12. Who is your favourite director?
I like Stanley Kubrick.
blogged by Shamath Mazumdar, NDTV Lumière
Tags: caramel, Nada Abou Farhat, Nadine Labaki, under the bombs, World Cinema
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watch it its an amazing film. i saw it 2 months back and loved IT AWSOME!!!
cool..never seen any of lebaneese cinema…can you guys enlighten more on this cinema?
we’re not lebanese. we’re punjabi.
How many of these people who complain about not having access to good world cinema in India are watching your Channel or going to the theaters to watch these movies?
Whats the box office report of these great films so far?