Celebrating 20 Years of Independent Film in Beirut | Founding director Hania Mroue

Today, if you send your film to Berlin, it's a political decision.

If you attend certain festival, you have to understand that this is a statement.

We still don't have any public support for this industry.

Our strength is that we are many doing what should be done for an industry to exist.

There was a desire for having a Lebanese cinema.

Lebanon was emerging from a very long and painful civil war.

Artists wanted to feel that they participate to this reconstruction of the country, but from a cultural point of view.

From the very beginning, I knew that I didn't want to create a space that would become a burden.

Either the audience will be excited and will support this project, or if they're not interested, it means there is no need for this space and it should be closed down.

So I was willing from the beginning to accept failure as an option.

Very quickly, we had enough audience to consider that 100 seats is too little, and we had to move to a bigger cinema.

After the revolution in 2019 and all the crisis, the financial collapse, et cetera, the owners of the space decided to sell it and gave us, uh, 48 hours notice to empty the space.

[upbeat music] Hey, welcome to a special episode of Kawalis, the Afikra Podcast, all about cinema and TV.

Um, with me is Hania Amrouche, who is the founder and director of, uh, Metropolis Cinema, which is a cinema and an institution, cultural institution in Beirut, and a very big part of a lot of people's lives in Beirut.

So, uh, it's an honor to have you on.

Hi, Hania.

Thank you, Mikki.

Thanks for having me.

I wanted to...

You know, I, I told you that I've wanted to have you on for a while, and a big part of it is because of how important Metropolis is to so many people in Beirut.

And as somebody who lives in Beirut, it's, uh, an important part of my life.

Um, can you tell, uh, the story of how it started? I know it's a story you've told many times, but, uh, walk me back to 2006, um, when, um, uh, Metropolis started.

Today, if you send your film to Berlin, it's a political decision.

If you attend certain festival, you have to understand that this is a statement.

We still don't have any public support for this industry.

Our strength is that we are many doing what should be done for an industry to exist.

There was a desire for having a Lebanese cinema.

Lebanon was emerging from a very long and painful civil war.

Artists wanted to feel that they participate to this reconstruction of the country, but from a cultural point of view.

From the very beginning, I knew that I didn't want to create a space that would become a burden.

Either the audience will be excited and will support this project, or if they're not interested, it means there is no need for this space and it should be closed down.

So I was willing from the beginning to accept failure as an option.

Very quickly, we had enough audience to consider that 100 seats is too little, and we had to move to a bigger cinema.

After the revolution in 2019 and all the crisis, the financial collapse, et cetera, the owners of the space decided to sell it and gave us, uh, 48 hours notice to empty the space.

[upbeat music] Hey, welcome to a special episode of Kawalis, the Afikra Podcast, all about cinema and TV.

Um, with me is Hania Amrouche, who is the founder and director of, uh, Metropolis Cinema, which is a cinema and an institution, cultural institution in Beirut, and a very big part of a lot of people's lives in Beirut.

So, uh, it's an honor to have you on.

Hi, Hania.

Thank you, Mikki.

Thanks for having me.

I wanted to...

You know, I, I told you that I've wanted to have you on for a while, and a big part of it is because of how important Metropolis is to so many people in Beirut.

And as somebody who lives in Beirut, it's, uh, an important part of my life.

Um, can you tell, uh, the story of how it started? I know it's a story you've told many times, but, uh, walk me back to 2006, um, when, um, uh, Metropolis started.