“Two Cities” .. a film that mixes drama and documentation

Coinciding with International Theater Day, Al-Madina Theater and its founder, Lebanese director and actress Nidal Al-Ashkar, celebrated the launch of the premiere of the documentary film “Two Cities”.

The film mixes documentation of the theater closest to a dream that Al-Ashqar transformed into a city in itself and the narrative realism. .

About the film, Al-Ashqar confirmed to “Sky News Arabia”: “In this film, we talked about our pain, our country, our disappointment, and everything, so I wanted to show it on World Theater Day.”

Nidal Al-Ashkar added: “In Lebanon, there are thousands of artists that the state does not care about, and no one cares about them. They made themselves themselves, and despite that, they revived people’s hearts and gave them hope.”

And she continued, “The Lebanese state is not present in the lives of artists, but on the contrary, artists are present in the lives of all people, in cinema, television, and theater, and today, on the occasion of Theater Day, I salute all artists, not only in Lebanon but in the Arab world and the world.”

And whether she believes that the Lebanese youth are able to carry the torch of the theater after that, she said: “I have great faith in them, as we have never closed in the time of Corona, and only young people were frequenting the stage for acting and directing.”

She concluded: “Only the Lebanese youth are able to change from the ossified mentality in the Lebanese state, and to extricate people from their racism, fanaticism, and sectarianism to the spacious spaces of life.”

For his part, the Lebanese actor, George Khabbaz, said: “I was moved after watching the movie Two Cities, which brought us back to the year 2016. It reminded us of the hardships and crises that we have experienced in Lebanon since then, and because of the severity and abundance of what we have gone through, I felt for a moment that I was watching events that had gone through more. Twenty years ago, however, the film gave us hope to advance through the Cultural Revolution, which is the beginning of all real revolutions.

In turn, the Lebanese actress, Julia Kassar, spoke to “Sky News Arabia”, saying: “What affected me the most was when Nidal Al-Ashkar confirmed in the film that she dreams of completing the theater even after her departure because, unfortunately, no one cares, and the playwrights themselves are the pulse, and they are the city.”