"As freewheeling as a travelogue, Lana Daher's mercurial documentary eschews talking heads and voiceover, drawing instead from more than 20,000 hours of archival footage to channel the resilient spirit of Beirut. Reflecting the non-linear movement of history, the film abandons chronology, zigzagging between disparate events, film clips and newsreels, TV programmes and home videos."
"There's also a deliberate emphasis on popular culture, with the inclusion of hit pop songs; one particularly exhilarating section is set to Dalida's classic disco track Laissez-Moi Danser, played over dancing scenes both fictional and real. The sequence is immediately followed by a shot of a garbage dump, a stark reminder of reality; off kilter as it is, this tongue-in-cheek edit feels like an ode to the collective courage of Lebanese people."
Do You Love Me draws from over 20,000 hours of archival footage and abandons chronology, replacing talking heads and voiceover with a non-linear montage. The film zigzags among newsreels, TV programmes, home videos and film clips to evoke Beirut's precarious daily life, juxtaposing weddings and family outings with hollowed-out buildings and bombed cars. It resurrects the Lebanese civil war and repeated invasions while making space for humour, beauty and popular songs. A Dalida disco sequence intercuts dancing with a garbage dump to underline resilient joie de vivre amid hardship. Editor Qutaiba Barhamji sustains a rhythmic balance across calm, exuberance and disorder.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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