Beirut, The Mistress of The World

In the elective of this semester IMAGE RHYTHM, RHYTHM IMAGE we made our own film experimenting with rhythm. I created a short video about the latest explosion in Beirut. For my video, I chose the poem „Beirut, The mistress of The World“ written by the famous Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani.

The Story Behind

Beirut is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been inhabited for more than 5,000 years. The city was destroyed and rebuilt 7 times, and that's why people resemble it with the Phoenix.

On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and 15$ billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. The blast was so powerful that it physically shook the whole country of Lebanon. It was felt in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan, and was heard in Cyprus, more than 240 km (150 mi) away.

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Beirut, The Mistress of The World

In 1978 the famed Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani published a popular poem titled: „Beirut, Oh Mistress of the World.“ In it, he eloquently and emotionally described the impact the Arab world was having on Beirut, which used to be considered the „Paris of the Middle East.“ The poem was written during the Lebanese civil war but it can help interpret what is currently going on in Lebanon in light of the recent explosion.

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Creation

To come up with this video, I used different shots taken from social media combined with different versions of a poem (lyrics and song). The video can be divided into 3 main parts„

1. The Explosion's Impact:

It's the first part where I added a voice-over for the poem and background music to reflect the sadness revealed in it. The importance of the drone camera's shot is to show the massive damage done to the whole city.

2. Overcoming it:

In this part, I used the song of the same poem that has been sung by a famous Lebanese singer “Majida Al Roumi„ and added a reversed version of other aspects of the explosion. the reversed video is used to let the audience feel the power of Beirut which can overcome hard situations.

3. Rising:

The last part begins when the song reaches the word “Rise„. The accompanying video shows the will of the Lebanese people removing the damages caused by the explosion and never giving up.

I really hope you've enjoyed my video! I enjoyed going through the process to come up with this project