“In 2011, I shot my feature film And the Living Is Easy, filming Beirut over eight
months through five characters, mainly non-professional actors, who were
improvising and performing scenes inspired by their love affairs, professional lives, friendships and the places that are dear to them. The city and their feelings became deeply intertwined. Constructing a fiction with their daily lives, I highlighted a malaise in present day-Beirut.
One of the main characters of And the Living Is Easy is Firas Beydoun, who was born and lived then in Ouzai, and whose family was one of the first to settle there in the fifties. His great grandfather, Ali Hassan Nasser, a pioneer, established his life and professional activities there, but also built a mosk, and further away a church. He became a prominent figure, acting as a local leader (‘za3im’). As I pursued my project Under-Writing Beirut, I got interested in researching the history of Ouzai, and met several members and acquaintances of the Nasser family. This piece is a reflection on the history of Ouzai through these encounters as well as on the mundane and historic places that are enmeshed with the narratives of this area.”