Tango of Yearning

Tango of Yearning 1998 is the first episode of an autobiographical trilogy on postwar Lebanon later including Nightfall 2000 and Civil War 2002 Taking its title from Tango of Hope a classic ballad by Nur alHuda the film draws from the directors reflections on war love and cinema as well as his personal experience at the public television channel TéléLiban Conjuring various snippets of audiovisual archival material the film is a poetic elegy to film Beiruts movie theaters and a city undergoing radical transformation Mohamed Soueid has long been a proponent of the experimental video documentary movement in Lebanon playing a significant role in the countrys creative renaissance since the end of the civil war Originally trained as a news videographer during the war the experience offered him a facility with the medium which he further developed by making nonlinear documentary films with a distinctly personal take