History repeats itself. Sometimes it happens in a faraway country. Others in the patio of our own house. On the one hand, the exercise of power, always reluctant to be controlled and bothered. On the other, a citizenry that perceives a clear correlation between the ambitions of that power and its needs and desires for prosperity. As a result of all this, The time comes when that citizenship, tired of enduring the pressure that comes as a result of all this, explodes and reveals. This is what happened in Lebanon at the end of the year 2019. In the midst of an economic and institutional crisis, The streets of Beirut were taken over by a few hundred protesters. Then, many more would arrive. This is the starting point of Homeland gone, work directed by the young director Laura Lavinia. As soon as she and her team of collaborators became aware of these facts, They took a plane and left for Lebanon to tell what was happening. Camera in hand, They walked the streets of Beirut to offer us this immersion exercise, as the director herself tells us in this interview. Homeland gone screens Wednesday 18/11 at 6 p.m.. at the La Nau Cultural Center, within the programming of The Cabin. GERARDO LEON
The first thing I would ask you is that you give us a short summary that contextualizes the origin and cause of these revolts that appear in your documentary..
Lebanon has a very serious problem and that is, over the years, has had some problems that have been recurring, what are they: the sects, corruption and power play. Really, even if it changed, For example, of government, the same thing would continue to happen. Sects were one of the main problems that prevented generations from advancing. Right now, the people, especially younger people, he is seeing that there is no future for them, and many people are still anchored, especially the oldest, in defending, first of all, your religion. This means that they never move towards a better society..
In addition to this general context, Was there any specific element that served as a trigger for those revolts??
It is much more complex because, per se, Lebanon was already going bad enough, They started adding taxes to that., corruption, They also had many health problems., that there was no... In the end what happened is that the bubble burst. There wasn't just one reason. This is going to be seen very well in the documentary because we are going to talk about sects., of money, of power, etc. And then, one thing that people will discover in the documentary, is that there is an element that unites all these generations and that has nothing to do with this.
How do you embark on this project?? How do you decide to go there to address this situation??
We have a portal called 14 millimeters (14milimetros.com), which we have been working a lot on in the Middle East (I was already in Syria in 2017), and then my colleague Alberto Rodríguez is an analyst and was always aware of that area. When these revolts began, he told us, “Have you seen what is happening?”?”, and from one week to the next we bought the ticket and went. Without any script, without any plan at all. Simply, We took the cheapest ticket there was and we stayed in Beirut. To my partner Jaime, For example, we didn't know him. He wrote to us on Twitter, “oye, where are you?"We met with him and from there he was born Homeland gone. We have always worked this way. It may seem chaotic, but when we believe that there is a story that is very worthwhile, let's go for it.
How does one organize oneself when one arrives at a place that is in a state of exaltation like the one that appears in the movie? How do you select and approach what interests you?? Did you have any prior contact or did everything emerge on the spot??
Known contacts, none. What we did have was social networks. Through Twitter, what we did the first week was write to journalists, analysts, politicians, and then go spinning, seeing, different versions, which is one thing that stands out a lot in this documentary. We have not wanted to draw an identity line, quite the opposite, so that everyone can, then, draw your own conclusion. And then another thing we did was spend eight or twelve hours in the protests. Get to know people. In fact, In the documentary there is a part of more formal interviews, and another that are with people we caught on the street. Different things happened every day. In that sense, It was a little crazy. “Oye, that at four in the morning there is a lot of trouble. Well, let’s go”. everything was like that.
While watching the movie, It caught my attention that, even though the events take place in another country, everything seemed familiar to me. One of the characters says: “I've been asleep for forty years…enough.”. Another phrase that is repeated is: “there is no future”. This reminds me of the Spanish 15M almost like a photocopy. I don't know if that happens to you and, above all, What similarities or relationship do you find between both situations??
Yes it is true that here, In Spain, We do not have that point of religions so deeply rooted, like in Lebanon, but, if you look, Lebanon was also a tourist country, in which people lived off that, and in Spain it is the same. When the tourists stopped coming, when they lost the value of the currency, They realized that they had nothing because they did not have their own production. In Lebanon everything matters, to the flour. So, when a country does not have its own resources, and Spain doesn't have that much because we live off tourism, look now with the bars (The bars close and the country collapses), there I have seen a similarity. I don't think we're in that situation., of course, but it could happen perfectly.
One of the knots of the documentary is found in the role it plays and the influence it has., as you say, religion. I read somewhere that Europe is a kind of oasis compared to the rest of the world, that is free from the political influence of religion. it is, but it does not have as strong a presence as can occur in Lebanon or, For example, and Israel, where you are going to collide with an orthodoxy that gets into all areas. How do you assess this situation?, as director and European citizen? How do you hope the viewer perceives it??
In the end, there religions are part of people's lives. Although it has nothing to do with, It's similar to what happens with the soccer team in your life.. It doesn't matter if your team does things that are wrong, you are always going to go with the team. Well that's what's happening there.. So that the country can do better, certain religion should not be in government. But it doesn't matter, Those people will continue to vote for their religion above all else.. Not Beirut, the neighborhoods are divided by religions. When you enter a neighborhood you know what religion it is. It is so present that they cannot conceive the idea of being without religions. It's more, Telling you that you don't have a religion is a strange thing.. It is a burden that cannot be gotten rid of only by changing the government., because when the government changes, the religions continue to be.
I don't know if these revolts can be considered an attempt or a demand to push the country towards greater secularism., at least politically. What chance do you think there is of this event occurring??
Well, I see it as very complicated., more than anything because, although young people want it, older or older people have a strong weight. Apart from that, in the end they are involved in the middle powers, money and very big companies. It's not easy. And Lebanon is getting worse. The pound has devalued greatly. In the end, This country has so many problems that if you start breaking them down to fix it, you don't know where to start. And with so many religions mixed, less.
Another of the conflicts that the film mentions and that, although you may think it's happening somewhere far away, when you listen to it you feel almost at home, It is the dissociation that exists between the financial sector and the productive sector.
Yes because, If you give all the powers to the banks, the day you don't have money or you go into a crisis, like the one Lebanon has now, you have nothing to live on. This is what happens in the documentary. There is a man who says it: is that we have been receiving money from other countries that were at war and now there are no more countries at war that bring money. So, right now, What can this country live on if it does not have any type of production?? Production seems to be something that requires a lot of work., but it is not necessary until the country collapses and realizes that it has nothing. Imagine that here, In Spain, The banks will stop giving you money and a man will say “I have put my savings there and now they tell me there is none”. How is that possible? Well, there it is happening.
As happened in 15M, What the protesters demand is more democracy or democracy without more. Do you think that the democratic system, by himself, may be the way to find a solution? Or do other structures need to be changed??
I see democracy as very complicated., starting from that, directly, I don't see that it is possible as long as the religions are there. Why, in the end, Even some religions have more power than others. That is no longer democratic.. You'd have to delete that first., above all, of the state. Then, Let everyone do what they want at home.. If religions are in the government, there will never really be a democracy, and that cannot be changed overnight. Surely, What happens is that it enters an even greater crisis. Look at what happened in the case of the explosion in Lebanon [in the port of Beirut, this summer]. It was what they were missing. It's just one misfortune after another. And now with Covid, a tremendous health collapse. If health care was already bad, now I won't even tell you. I see a very dark future for Lebanon, the truth. And I don't see democracy as close either because what is really rotten is the structure of the system., It's not just removing this and putting that in.. The other thing is the same.
There is a character that has caught my attention because it seems to me that he plays the role of the voice of good judgment in the midst of all the chaos.. This character proposes something that no one seems to consider and that is the fact of postponing the solution for some time.. How do you see these momentary processes of exaltation? I mean that idea of believing that I'm going to get up and that, by himself, it will solve the problem. And maybe not, The problems are more complex and, if they have a solution, it is in the long term, as that character said.
Yeah, it's more, in an interview we did with one of the boys who comes out, I ask him, “vale, we make this revolution, but, once done what?. and he tells me, “that's what we don't know. We really don't know what's going to happen next.. Because of course, we can be angry now and we can go out and protest, but we really don't have a joint idea of what we want. In the end, everyone is angry about one thing, the hall, but then what?. But they are also afraid of war.. There it can explode at any moment. Besides, Lebanon is a strategic country. So, what people want is for the country to improve, but without much exaltation. That is what has happened with Covid, that everything stopped a little. They will surely come back again, but nothing may happen at all, or that a lot of everything happens.
It gives me the impression that in Spain we pay very little attention to the conflicts that occur outside. It looks, but it does not go deeper and, in the end, they are not very present. I think we have turned our gaze too much or almost exclusively on ourselves and have left out almost everything else.. Maybe it's my impression and you don't share it..
No, It's true. Yeah, Yeah, you are absolutely right. I think that seeing what is happening outside can be dangerous for the inside because you can realize that you may look like another country that is doing worse., and the same thing could happen to you. Instead, if you don't pay attention to what is happening in Lebanon or other countries, you say, “bueno, I'm fine now.". I think that, in part, people don't look at what's happening outside because, if they start to analyze it, Maybe they realize that they can go down the same path. Let tourism suddenly fall, can happen at any time. May the banks not leave you money, can happen at any time, also. That the euro suddenly devalues. It is not expected, but it can happen perfectly. These are things that can happen, but, if you don't see it, it's like you're fine, are you comfortable. And that's what's happening to us., that in the end we settle. But I invite everyone to do a little more research., to look for that other look at things because, in the end, They are going to learn and see other realities.
Is it self-induced or unconscious isolation??
I think so. But many times it is also the fault of the media, that give you the same news copied and pasted into 800 channels and 800 newspapers. I mean there are not many alternative means either and, So, young people can watch TV and skip the topic. I encourage people to try to dig a little deeper.. That's why we created 14 minutes, so that people can be more curious about things.
If I asked you to tell me what impression you would like people to take away from your film, what would it be?
I would like people to leave with a sigh. Finish the documentary and don't think about the political part you've seen.. May you stay until the end of the credits, which is very important, and reflect a little on the life they have and how quickly everything can change. And although the documentary talks about the power of money, there are more things beyond that. And it is also important to feel proud of who you are., and the identity that we have to, over the years, both here, like elsewhere, has been lost, something that is also seen in the documentary.
“People have hope”, says one of the characters. You have already told me this, but, How do you see that hope projected into the future in your own characters??
The day we made the documentary, a year ago since that, people had hope. After, with Covid, I think the hopes are gone, how it happened here, In Spain. We had projects and, suddenly, you lose hope. I hope that people will be reborn again and that they will rise again and demand the rights they should have again., but, right now, The year is so uncertain that I couldn't tell you anything because I didn't even know if I could come to The Cabin (laughter). With this documentary what I wanted is for people to, I'm not telling you to learn about geopolitics, Not much less, That was never my intention.. Simply, let him start a little and let him know, that is within the Lebanese conflict, who knows what Lebanon is. We have put small touches so that they were inside the country. Then, If people want to dig a little deeper, there are many things. But we wanted them to leave with that impression. “Bueno, I'm leaving, But I left with that something that made me think.”.
