The space allotted for this article is narrower than in Sin. Lots of speech and the number of words does not allow for excess or exaggeration. There is no useful deception to avoid long lines of narrative, except that the writing must be tense and contraction, making the text tight, compressing it, compressing it and shortening it, but there is still much to be written because there is much more to be done. do. said. Interviewing Ghassan Salhab in terms of value is like watching his films. And his films require criticism, writing and journalism. The nature of the art created by Salhab creates its external influences in an amalgamation of these intersections, and naturally in return it requires a wide space that corresponds to the space it allows when creating art. So the main idea is this. On the topic: A discussion session with a Lebanese filmmaker from outside the mainstream, school, and art community on issues that may be considered obsolete. Some of them are forgotten, others are dug from the graves, and talk about him and his films-they are in principle inseparable-and therefore talk about the cinema or the “cinema ”Its, with the minimum amount of cinematography, writing material for the press should be critical.

Occasion: His new film The River, which will be screened in Ayyam Beirut (17/6) without mentioning any details related to the theme or occasion, but in an implied and meaningless way, as he does it beautifully, and then a quick silence, followed by a passing statement he made when he heard the sound of a civilian plane flying at low altitude: “The sound of an airplane has become an element of my films.” The conversation began with him, in a smooth flow, faster than time. For Salhab, the beginning of the film has no end. A motion similar to extending the arm while shaking hands and leaving the cuff open. Determinism is not in his vocabulary, as well as in the subjects. If cinema is in one aspect the mode of expression that binds the director and viewer, then the latter must meet first in the middle of the road to complete the coherence of the story being told, because it cannot be accomplished without personal complementation. as a result of watching. The viewer in this case is the subject, not the viewer. “Meaning” according to Salhab, without meaning, i.e. in its total form as a substance controlled by inertia, he considers it an amulet. His equation is reversed. Since the same thing cannot be repeated, clearly the same applies to the viewer. Therefore, just as the impression a film makes when it ends varies from one eye to another, it also comes from this distinction of further distinction, which in turn serves to capture the viewer’s unique meaning and of his own interpretation of the film. This is how the task ends and summarizes as follows: creating prosperity and refusing to be flexible in the same sense, as is customary in the world of spectacle (consumer cinema). At the beginning of his films, it is like the beginning of a poet’s poem. The opening takes a character identified with the nature of its themes (isolation, absence, war, memory…) and is loud, sometimes cruel and often shocking. But the chronological line in the construction of the narrative is not important for him, as he is more interested in using other factors, such as place, sound and characters. As a deviation from the above, whether the films of the latter are characterized by a reputation for complexity or the “character” of complexity, Khalil (Ghosts of Beirut) and his other characters have liability. Marguerite Duras wrote little and missed a lot. Writing is called “deleting and erasing”. In this way, the meaning remains rich, and the mystery of the story is fermented, so that they are not openly spread without the reader announcing his decision, whether he wants to reveal or hide. Ghassan Salhab’s trilogy, which will end after the screening of the film The River (starring the films The Mountain and The Valley), like his other works, is built on the conflicting duet of absence/presence. “,“ Peace / war ”and“ memory / oblivion ”, which leaves nothing to be desired. Or a white field waiting to be filled. Thus, a work of art emerges as an empirical workshop in which questions, doubts and uncertainties are reinforced, and the final answers that decide history and sacred sermons disappear. A leap above logic in all its forms, from reason to conclusion, so that the goal is always subject to aberrations, tenses, alert movements and possibilities. “Swim deep and far, even if it immerses me,” he says. In the same vein, such a radical choice allows cinema to go beyond itself, if only considered as a mediator, and become a long walk, indifferent to its own fate. , from “mountain”, through “valley”, down to “river”. Salhab defines the verb to enter as synonymous with the verb to descend. He added that the three words/concepts (“mountain”, “valley”, “river”) fall into a sphere, which is naturally organic. It also converges semantically into mythological space. Does Selhub use a cinematic image here as a metaphor for the Calvary Way, but on the contrary, with a downhill rather than an uphill path? Does the “river” here form an indispensable passage, providing the purification (catharsis) of the lofty sacred (mountain) that does not coincide with the evil soil (valley) to be cleansed from sin? All we know is, The River’s story is inspired by the severance of love between a man and a woman, and how when a relationship changes, a familiar state evaporates and is replaced by a state of love. avoidance, even if its owner does not. deliberately stay away or dull cold. We also know that the water in the river flows smoothly, we can hear the noise of planes, and that is enough.

* “River”: Question: 21:30, June 17 – “Cinema City” (Beirut Bazaars)