A couple of days ago I was browsing through the thread of a discussion involving various Lebanese journalists and social media users about why to leave the country or rather stay. Almost one year after the terrible explosion that left 300,000 people homeless, another episode in the never-ending story of corruption and foreign interventions on Lebanese soil, people are losing hope. A country isolated and made hopeless by its own rulers, with a little deadly help from abroad. Years of economic crisis and mismanagement of public funds left many citizens of Lebanon, especially young people, with no other choice but immigration. Some still want to stay and are optimistic about the chances of a change as long as they are the vectors of change.
But the immigration trend in Lebanon is not new. It started early on, at the end of the 19th century and continues until now. They left for America, Mexico, Brazil, France or Canada, some went alone - particularly men - sent money back to family and eventually returned to bring their families or to build up a better life back home. It is quite a normal phenomenon that affected many countries in Europe and elsewhere as well. Ireland, Spain, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Portugal are among the European countries whose citizens decided to leave for a better future, creating double identities while contributing to the multi-ethnic and -linguistic identities of their new countries.
Vers l´Inconnu?/Ila Ayn/Where to?/Towards the Unknown directed by Georges Nasser is the first Lebanese film featured at Cannes. Nasser is considered until now one of the most famous Lebanese film directors. The black-and-white movie is a simple immigration story: the family father leaves his wife and two children, convinced by a neighbour that in Brazil he can find better work and build a better future for his children. But 20 years later, the mother - brave and courageous and strong in her fragility - is frailed for the years of waiting and growing up the two sons all by herself. The oldest one assumed the traditional role of head of the household even at the risk of abandoning his studies, while the youngest was able to build a career, but it´s impatient to go search for his father and leave his village and country for good. ´I have to go!´ he says several times, with the pathos of those who cannot wait.
Then, out of nowhere, a stranger in a worned suit comes in the village, trying with bitter words to warn that ´Immigration is a hard path´. Who is the man? No one has time to ask him properly, as the family is preparing to adjust to the absence of the younger son and the younger son himself is too inebriated with the excitement of his future prospects.
Ila Ayn is a movie of few words and a suggestive musical background. There are no philosophical discussions or extra symbols that may load the narrative. We, the viewers, are invited to watch a country and a family on the move. The notion of time is vague maybe also because the landscape stays mostly the same, the frame is the same. Only people change. They grow up or grow old and that´s the nature of things. Then why going out and looking for something else that in fact you might never found?
Where to? As someone who left at least three times in a very short life, simply heading to a new country with different cultures and languages than mine, just because was not feeling well in the comfortable place I was living and felt suffocated and hopeless, I may confess that moving is not easy, but for some it´s an urge. You cannot explain it clearly to anyone but yourself and if you want to do it, you don´t need logical explanations. You take a risk, which does not mean that your life will be better. You have your own reasons to feel better. You may fail. Some people can fail just to build their glorious come back. Some never. As I was about to move to my latest wandering destination, someone very intellectually dear to me told me that ´You know, some may start small, by washing dishes, but will never go really big again´. A concern I was very much aware of, but that impulse of leaving everything behind and starting again was stronger than the idea of washing dishes - nothing wrong with it, as long as you really know how to do it.
A movie set and made at the end of the 1950s still resonates today. It has a national meaning, but also inspires those wanderers from all over the world. Often, the answer to ´Where to?´ is relevant as delving into the unknown is much more exciting than really having your own recipe for success. What is success after all? Why evaluate your success - and failure - based on objective society standards and expectations?
Ila Ayn is a perfect case study of further discussion about the for and against arguments of leaving or staying, or searching for a better future and how to define this ilusory better future. It is a movie of ideas without explicitly being an ideological, thesis-oriented film. It is definitely worth the thoughts, both as an artistic production and as a cultural artefact.
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