Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: Lebanese director Ghassan Salhab eased the urgency of his trilogy with his presentation of the movie The River last year, which had its premiere at the Locarno International Festival. The trilogy was completed and the river was followed by the films “The Mountain” 2010, and “The Valley” 2014.
On this occasion, the mountain and the valley beside the river were shown on the 4th, 5th and 6th of this month at the “Vox” cinema, free of charge, at the request of the director. And the last show witnessed an open dialogue with Ghassan Salhab.
A trilogy with titles that may be an introduction to poetry, a song or an exploration of the joys of nature. In it, Salhab says what he wants through a beautiful and very calm visual scene. It is left to the recipient to read and conclude what he likes. The receiver in Salhab films is like the staring and checking in an abstract painting, and from a distance that allows for an overview. Of course, not everyone will have a unified reading, as everyone searches according to his mood in the strokes of colors, or some scenery. With Salhab, it is necessary to catch the breath and enjoy the calm and serenity, as he, in a large part of his directing game, works on the senses. In the river we reached the soul with a large gray image that is the full screen, for a start, and we waited for the next.
In Ghassan Salhab’s picture, reading silence and the movement of the body puts itself in front of the viewer and motivates him to listen. Confession is a duty that his image entices the viewer to inspect the shooting locations and ask regarding them. While the subject he wants to convey remains a source of speculation, his charming cinematic eye emerges to the fore.
Reading in the Salhab trilogy is therefore left to the mood of the viewer, as the words of its heroes are few, and the dialogue between them is brief. We don’t even know the names of the actors in his films. At the end of the river, we heard the woman calling the man by the name of Ghassan, and only once. Is it Ghassan Salhab himself?
Between the mountain, the valley and the river there is a feeling of unified fairies that form the link between them. In the river we see the first scenes of a man and a woman finishing their food in a mountainous restaurant surrounded by an autumnal atmosphere, as if they had just broken up their relationship.
They are regarding to leave when the warplanes begin to roar in the sky. It’s the feeling of war, and it’s back once more. The woman gets lost and the car engine stops spinning, so the man leaves him, and begins his search. He finds the woman at the other end of the mountain. Together they begin to explore the depths of the place and dive into the lap of nature and eat apples, but the snake did not come. Times pass during which the roar of planes, and its smoke lines drawn in the sky, do not stop. They are the warplanes present in the mountain, valley and river trilogy.
With actor Ali Suleiman and actress Youmna Marawan, we follow a beautiful journey in the lap of autumn nature, where the endless playing of fallen autumn leaves. Or swish stuck to each other. The beautiful tranquility of nature and the movement of the lone actors was a pleasure to look at in this film. At the same time, the internal question continues, what does he want to say from him? Perhaps the connection between the movement of the heavens and the movement of the earth, and the looks and breaths of the lone actors, say our long-standing anxiety and turmoil.
In that vast area of natural beauty, where nullity is quietly transmitted, despite the anxiety that inhabits them, it was a space for dialogues and metaphysical conclusions revolving in the human orbit: ».
The movement of warplanes increases, and in moments we hear that it is approaching the ground.
The two heroes get lost once more to appear on the banks of the river! It is the pleasure of watching Ghassan Salhab’s films, and the correctness of the conclusion without arguing that he does not present popular cinema, but rather offers cinema that he loves.
Salhab Cinema needs to be watched repeatedly, to further discover the splendor of the scene, and to confirm that anxiety dwells in all of us.
The River Film is produced by Tania Khoury’s “Fifty Films”. Music by Sherif Sehnaoui.
