Manal Issa, 2024

In Beirut on September 22, 2024, just hours before bombing escalated throughout the country, the Lebanese French actress Manal Issa considers the role of the actor during the unfolding global conflict.

With Manal Issa, 2024, Elisabeth Subrin prolongs her exploration of reenactment to question female representations and the machinery of power that shapes them. In her previous film Maria Schneider, 1983, three actresses, including French-Lebanese actress Manal Issa, reenact an interview with Maria Schneider. Here, Subrin has Issa ask the questions – cut out by the editing – that Schneider was asked at the time, so that Issa can give her own views. The actress delivers an essential and uncompromising account of her profession and the political reach it has today.   

The scene seems to unfold in a cafe. The fixed camera faces an empty chair placing us as interlocutors opposite an off-screen character. A few objects on a table – a cigarette burnt shorter in each new shot, a telephone, a cup of coffee – signal her presence. Lighting variations punctuate the static shots, while a window to the side gives a glimpse of the city’s constant bustle. Her voice inhabits the space. She questions what being an actor in the current wartime context means, and the place assigned to her in the film industry.  

Shot in Beirut, with some of the crew forced to work remotely from New York, the film captures the backdrop of the city, where the muffled noises of the tensions resonate.  A few hours after the filming, the bombardments intensified. Between presence and absence, the words of Issa echo beyond the screen with an unrelenting political acuity.

Nepheli Gambade