REVIEW Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Barbara Lounder, visual artist.
Stillness and Stories: The films of Raghed Charabaty Melding fiction and sociopolitical history Everyone knows that stories are simplifications. To
details that are the most-loved in any story. As we
tell a story is to select. Only in this way can a story
know too well, those familiar spaces and narratives
be given a form and so be preserved. If you tell a
of daily life can be ruptured in an instant of violence.
story about somebody you love, a curious thing happens. The storyteller is like a dressmaker cutting
For Charabaty, Alia is a reconciliation with the
a pattern out of cloth. You cut from the cloth as fully
memories of his parents’ generation, and with his
and intelligently as possible. Inevitably there are
own identity as an Arab. Alia was narrated by his
narrow strips and awkward triangles which cannot
father, Naji Charabaty, and #Deema features the
be used—which have no place in the form of the
poetry of his mother, Sana Jumayel. In #Deema,
story. Suddenly you realize it is those strips, those
reconciliation weaves two narratives together; the
useless remnants, which you love most. Because the
tragic love story of the characters Deema and Nidal,
heart wants to retain all.
displaced from their homeland, and the unfolding
From John Berger, Go Ask the Time, Granta
of the Arab Spring. #Deema is striking in its use
Magazine, Spring 1985
of saturated colour, often isolated against dark
of still life and portrait traditions in painting and
I shall collect your precious tears inside a perfume
photography; movement is economical, often slow,
bottle
using nuances of light and shadow to depict private
And on cold mornings
moments that crescendo into societal calamity. Alia,
Wipe my eyelids with them
It is through the sensitive and intelligent integration of new, and established, modes of visual language that Charabaty brings important stories to life.
a 5-minute film by Charabaty, recounts the April
Hoping that their salt will take me to your beaches
new, and established, modes of visual language that
13, 1975, ‘bus massacre’ in Ain el-Rummaneh (an
Where our dreams, like waves
Charabaty brings important stories to life.
event regarded as the beginning of the civil war
Rock back and forth …
in Lebanon), through the memory of an elderly
Sana Jumayel, from #Deema
backgrounds. The lighting is warm, with details Raghed Charabaty’s award-winning short films have
rendered in amber tones, drawing the viewer in.
an aesthetic sensibility recalling the conventions
man. The eponymous (and fictional) protagonist,
36 tribe
Originally from Dahr El Sawan, Lebanon, Raghed (Ray) Charabaty came to Canada in 2012. He
represented as one of the 27 to die in the attack,
Charabaty’s third film, Yasmine, is in progress at
completed a BFA with a Major in Film at the Nova
is a symbol of pre-war Lebanon, and a memory
the time of writing. It promises to introduce us
Scotia College of Art and Design in 2016, having
of a lost love. Alia’s face is a chiaroscuro portrait,
to new visual and narrative tools in Charabaty’s
produced two highly acclaimed short films about his
silently meeting our gaze. This contrasts with longer
filmmaking toolbox, some borrowed from the
homeland. Alia (2015) and #Deema (2016) soon to
shots of her with companions on the bus. Like a
genres of animation, horror movies and thrillers. It
be accompanied by a third film, Yasmine (2017). See
genre painting, the scene is alive with animated
will also include shots made in ‘cloud tanks’, which
http://raghed.ca and https://vimeo.com/raghed for
conviviality. The attire, belongings and food recall
were used to great effect in Alia and #Deema. It is
more information about the work of this promising
Berger’s reference to ‘useless remnants,’ everyday
through the sensitive and intelligent integration of
new filmmaker.
