"Why does she insist on digging into the past, especially when this war was no worse than the others? Yet it is precisely her act of remembering of knowing that she did not dream the actuality of war that prompts her to dig into the present. The Lebanese director's debut feature is itself a substantive feat of excavation, with more than 20,000 sources consulted in collaboration with the editor, Qutaiba Barhamji"
"Aside from war, limits on the freedom of expression by postcolonial states also play their part in cultural erasure. In another of Do You Love Me's scenes, two women pore over newspapers and point at sections blanked out by the heavy hand of the censor even the prime minister's column is not immune. Elhum Shakerifar, a Bafta-nominated producer and curator who focuses on films from the region, said: Archives the world over are curated."
A woman refuses to forget Lebanon's 15-year civil war, insisting that remembering confirms the reality of war and compels engagement with the present. Lana Daher's debut feature assembled over 20,000 sources with editor Qutaiba Barhamji to excavate archival footage and create a 76-minute film. Lebanon lacks a national archive and contemporary history is not taught in schools, complicating collective memory. Regional precedents include the Palestine Film Unit's archives being seized during the 1982 siege of Beirut and Iraqi state archives confiscated after the 2003 occupation. Censorship and curated access to archives further erase cultural records and restrict historical knowledge.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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