“It’s OK” is a documentary about Elissa Hadidia, who was not broken by disappointments
“It’s OK” is a documentary produced by “Different Production” by Mazen Al-Laham. It tells the life story of the Lebanese artist Elissa. Its three episodes are shown exclusively on the Netflix platform, in which Elissa narrates stages of her life and secrets that she had not touched upon before.
She responded to all the questions that came to her fans’ minds with the spontaneity she was known for. She talks about her beginnings with the late Wassim Tabbara Theater, after which she moved to the Ten O’Clock Theater. She was sixteen years old when she took responsibility and contributed to the expenses of her family home. Then she moved on to participate in the “Studio Al Fan” program. She enters the old belongings room in her house in Achrafieh, and displays the certificate of her success there. That day, she won the silver medal in the folkloric singing category. That was in 1992. She searches for the medal among many boxes containing her memories, but she does not find it. She comments: “That day, I signed an agreement with the program’s director, Simon Asmar, stipulating that I would work with him for ten years. But after a while, the contract was terminated because they were not convinced of my talent.”
In each of her appearances in the documentary, Elissa conveys a message, and with utmost transparency, honesty and frankness, she admits what she has and what she owes. “No one can help you get out of isolation,” she says. Search within yourself for positives that will help you stand up again.
Elissa faced many disappointments and frustrations. She had cancer and fought it with hope. “I am by nature a positive humanitarian, I see things from an optimistic perspective. So every time I fell and then got up, because I don’t like to give up.”
The documentary “It’s OK” about the artist Elissa is shown on Netflix (Elissa’s Instagram)
Despite the many obstacles she faced in her early career as an artist, she remained committed to her goal. “I realized that I loved the singing profession and decided to pursue it no matter the cost. The road was never rosy, so I struggled and struggled to achieve what I wanted.”
In one of the episodes of the documentary, Elissa takes us to her childhood memories and to a monastery for nuns in the town of Faytroun, where her father enrolled her in a boarding school, and she stayed there from the age of 8 to 16 years, checking it out with her sister, who accompanied her during her stay there. She walks in the monastery court pretending to be kicking the ball as in the past. She asks about the sisters Hanna and Samira, the nuns she remembers from her journey there. She discovers that the first died, while she met the second in another monastery.
More than once, Elissa was moved and did not try to hide her tears from the viewer. The moments in which she burst into tears the most were when she remembered her late father, Zakaria. He was her support, her encourager, and the confidant of her secrets. She told her interlocutor: “He was generous, generous to the utmost, educated, and possessed of extensive knowledge. He taught Arabic literature and wrote poetry.” Through it, she drew a picture of the man of her life, so she dreamed of him and searched for him, but she was unsuccessful, as she says.
In the three episodes of “It’s OK,” although she talks about her life’s journey and the problems and frustrations she encountered, she also impresses the viewer with her resilience. A woman of steel par excellence, she knew deep down that everything she desired from this life, she would obtain by her own will.
Perhaps the only time her destiny betrayed her was in an emotional relationship that she described as “toxic,” which destroyed her and eliminated one of her most important dreams, which was to have a child and become a mother. She boldly explains: “It was a toxic relationship that I don’t know how I endured. It made me depressed. At that point I was ready to get married and have children. However, all my hopes were in vain when I discovered the truth about this person, his deception, and his lying to me. Immediately after that, I got cancer. With the first dose of hormones I swallowed during my treatment, I moved into the menopause stage, so the message was clear that my dream of becoming a mother was gone and would not return.
She realizes that life cannot “give us everything.” She is Elissar Khoury, who turned into Elissa of success and fame. She conquered bullying and separation from the family, and was stopped by nostalgia and death. She withstood, confronted, and proceeded confidently through a path full of obstacles and blows of fate.
She announces in the “documentary” a love story that she is experiencing (Elissa’s Instagram)
In the documentary, Elissa brings the viewer into her home and bedroom. In the first episode of the documentary, we get to know her mother, sister, and children. Regarding Elissa’s role in her life, her mother responds, “She is the joy of the house and its manager from A to Z. She has always been special among her brothers and sisters, and everyone loves her.”
She admits that at some point she became addicted to cosmetic filler injections. But she soon decided to get rid of the face that she could not recognize when she stood in front of the mirror.
“It’s okay” is an English phrase that Elissa became famous for every time she was asked about a reaction or position that criticized her. In the documentary, we discover that she does not just pronounce it as a verbal phrase, but that she means every letter of it. She does not stop at an obstacle or bump, but rather continues her path, struggling with the waves of life that break at her feet when she says, “I will continue the path, It’s ok.”
She admits that she loves the city of Paris, and we visit her home there with her, who she considers her adopted daughter, Angelina Sawiris. She says that there she feels free and comfortable and behaves like any ordinary citizen. “But my first and last love remains for my country, Lebanon, and I cannot live far from it. In it, I relax and feel that I have returned to life again. I liken myself to the solid land of my homeland, which despite all the calamities it has experienced, has remained steadfast.”
There are many milestones that Elissa goes through in this documentary presented by the confessional chair, in which she talks about the sweet and bitter in her life, the mistakes she committed, and the disappointments she experienced, such that the viewer cannot count them. But some scenes remain engraved in the memory, and they are those that depict her hurt and in pain due to illness. In others, we see her glowing at her concerts or while filming her clip. The health setback that befell her affected parts of her body as a result of the treatment. Her feet can no longer handle high heels. Her forearm was swollen due to the swelling of her lymph gland. She resorted to hiding it several times while standing on stage. “Today I no longer care about this matter, and what does it mean for people to see it bloated? (It’s ok) The issue does not deserve all this concern. I have passed the stage of danger, and I thank the Lord of the Worlds because I am in good health today.”
The documentary viewer draws many lessons from the experiences and situations that Elissa lived through. She injects him with doses of strength, will, and love of life, and concludes that she derives all of this strength from her belief in the Lord of the Worlds. She indicated this in more than one scene, photograph, and speech.
Elissa focuses on the importance of true love, surrounded by her family and close friends who did not abandon her during any ordeal she went through. “They were my biggest supporter, without a doubt. Love in general is beautiful, so what if it is sincere?
In the final episode of the documentary, she reveals the love relationship she is currently experiencing, which she considers the most successful in her love life. We hear his voice speaking to her on the phone. He lives in America, and many months pass without them meeting. “Despite this distance, he is very close to me and I feel comfortable when he talks to me. He is a man in every sense of the word.” She tells us that he is a man with gray hair and that she loves him very much. “The men I knew before may have betrayed me. But I am sure that my beloved today is loyal to me, and in his eyes I am the most beautiful woman in the world.”
