The Night between Ali and I
A collaboration between Nadia Hotait y Laila Hotait
Generaciones 2015 production award
3 channel HD, video-installation
“The night between Ali and I”, is a fictional reenactment of one of the key events that happened in Lebanese and Levantine contemporary History: the highjack of 39 hostages at the Bank of America in Beirut, on October 18th, 1973.
In this event four armed young fellows from the Lebanese Socialist Revolutionary
Movement entered the bank, in Downtown Beirut, and asked from the authorities ten million dollars for the Arab fight against Imperialism in the region and the release of a few Arab political prisoners. They also requested that their demands and manifesto be published in the newspaper.
The installation displayed as a triptych with three main voices: Amer Farrough, one of the 4 men, Mariam, Ali’s sister and our own narration of the events. The images evoke in a particular way what happened during the night of the 26 hours that lasted the hijack but very much as we imagine things happen during the assault, and how the interaction between hostages and guerrilla gunmen in our view with a particular dance, a “deconstructed” dabke.
You are here for a reason | The night between Ali and I | A glance and I thought it was a greeting
La chose commence ici | Flying fence | Preferring the fleeting happiness on earth
Half broken hearted half in love | The connivance of watching Birds
You know who I am | Oum in three movements | Besides the sea | Friction
58 Degrees | Anticipation of a disappearance | Inheritance | The south is back