Everything that the stone did to us was conveyed by the writer Alexander Najjar in Monologues by actors, and directed by Farah Chia in half an hour through the movie "The Time of Corona".
Al Jazeera Net spoke to the team, the writer, director, and actors Badi Abu Shaqra, Nada Abu Farhat, and the producer Josiane Paul, who wanted to take part in this experimental film.
It is an experimental film, because its preparation and filming were during stone and general mobilization, filmed by phone camera, technology and lighting, and the sound was later modified in the mix with John Madani.
Perspectives
The work's author, Alexander Najjar, is a lawyer and he has about 30 books, most recently on Corona entitled "The Dreaded Crown," worked as an advisor to several culture ministers, and director of the literary attaché at L'Orient, who is the writer of "The Time of Corona," says that the movie is both tragic and comedic . He wanted to film just as people in this period communicate on smartphones.
The events revolve around the young Walid who wants to go to his girlfriend Lama to congratulate her on her 18th birthday, and about several people who experience this event, each from his location, and their reactions starting from his mother, to the school teacher who oversees the provision of remote lessons.
The film also deals with the grandfather of the fraudster Walid Al-Serafi, his mother, a nurse in a hospital, the taxi driver who takes him to see his girlfriend and stop by the municipal police, the mother of the girl that hysterical personality of disease, and the same girl who believes that love is stronger than disease and death.
Carpenter says that in trying the epidemic with tragedy opinion and a bit of absurdity, the film reflects the matter in a simple way. The significance is to show the sociological aspect of the people facing this difficult era with sadness, absurdity, and even frenzy, and it contains a message of hope from the nurse or the policeman at the end of their conversation, and a love story.
Hysterical lady
For her part, producer, actress and writer Josiane Paulus is considered a great pride in working with Alexander Najjar, and that director Farah Chia gave the film a comic flavor and a fast rhythm that made the movie enjoyable, and although the filming was done with a phone camera, the film was produced in a professional manner.
Josiane considers that the film is a testimony to this stage "that we experienced from the revolution, cultural resistance, stone, Lebanese steadfastness and difficulties". He will participate in festivals and exhibitions on local and foreign channels.
Josian tells Al Jazeera Net that she plays Giselle, a hysterical lady, who is afraid of the virus spreading, and notes that she enjoyed performing the role after she rewrote it in her own way.
Croissant dialect
While actress Nada Abu Farhat says that she liked the idea because it completely simulates the age and is a reflection of it.
And about her role in the movie, Nada indicated that she plays a nurse, and presents the suffering of the medical staff during the crisis of Corona, who is also the daughter of the cashier who plays the role of actor Michel Gabr, the mother of the lover boy Walid, and the sister of Sir Emily Jerome, whose face is not shown and responsible for lessons Online and not known to technology.
Nada liked to add the cesarean accent "mountain accent" to the character who does not wear makeup and does not care for herself, and spends her time in the hospital with a mask and muzzle, and those in charge of the work loved the experience of this accent that helped her rewrite the actress Eliane Fadel.
She was afraid the film would fall into monotony due to the long monologue, but she notes that Farah's chopping made him beautiful. Alexander's text also came as realistic as our daily lives and the way we speak, and according to Nada Abu Farhat, the film highlights the dimensions of suffering, and how the new generation and adults think.
As for the actor Badi Abu Shaqra, he tells Al Jazeera Net that he is enthusiastic about the idea when the author presented it to him, and Badi considers that preparing for the artwork is the most important, because he is responsible for giving a good result if the work is done in a correct way, and this is what happened. Badi has filmed his role alone after agreeing the details with the director.
Badi explained that the role of the actor is to collect the puzzle of work without increasing or decreasing, as the film is like a puzzle, and the skill of the actor is to give without increasing or decreasing.
On his part, he says, he is a municipal policeman during the period of the stone, who executes the orders given to him for the stone, and gives his simple, spontaneous and innate view of this stone.
Individual scenes
Director Farah Chia collected everything that was mentioned in the director's collection, after she arranged the scenes' cadres with the actors, and photographed on her phone their monologues after choosing the personal details of clothes and accents, and the voice and camera of the mobile phone and the lighting in the house of each actor, presented a half-hour artwork, and documented Through him the situation of people completely automatic.
Farah, who has been working in the television field for about 10 years between writing, directing, editing and writing a series of road, says that the challenge was for everyone through working with the available capabilities and the existing conditions, so "we started working in the framework of the experiment, without a team and a technical team."
Farah noted that the characters of the film did not meet at all. Rather, she photographed her monologues that were cut during the montage, so that the Zoom scenes of the students were not real, but were collected later.
Through video calls, Farah chose the best cadre in the homes of the actors, as well as natural lighting and all the details of the characters. After the ban was eased, Farah took the necessary safety measures and photographed every actor in his house, except for Badi, who filmed his scene alone after agreeing on the details.