“It’s a job that now requires to keep playing in real life,” Manal describes the profession of an actress. This time, she is in Beirut. Three years ago, she played the actress Maria Schneider, recreating the 1983 TV interview of Cinéma Cinémas. Now Manal responds to the same questions posed to Schneider 40 years ago. The short was made on 22 September 2024 – only a couple of hours before the country was bombed. 

The award-winning American director Subrin stages a recreation of Q&A from an even more radical angle – this time, through the chosen form she finds herself in a documentary, in conversation with the French-Lebanese actress Manal Issa. A couple of years ago, RIGA IFF screened the director’s short Maria Schneider, 1983 (2022), which recontextualised Schneider’s (1952–2011) experience during the filming of Last Tango in Paris (1972) – the infamous rape scene was a trauma that followed the actress until her last hour.