The departure of Asaad Al-Lebanese: the sincerity of an untapped cinematic performance
It is not easy, the moment his death was announced, to remember the cinematic roles of the Lebanese actor Abdullah Homsi (1937-2023), despite their fewness, as he has no first or second starring roles, even though his “transient” passage in Lebanese films arouses attention and reflects his ingenuity. Artistic, technical and dramatic, in performing what is required of him with clear aesthetics. The predominance of television comedies, and some theaters, for their pioneers, have an abundant share, not all outside of simplified and entertaining comedy, which is also useful, because, in the majority of the productions in which he participates, he gives something of kindness and goodwill in a world steeped in corruption, oppression and pain. Kindness and good faith do not prevent honesty and clarity of vision regarding living, life and relationships.
Abdullah “Assaad” Homsi, one of the members of the “Abu Salim al-Tabl Band”, will be the most prominent among his fellow participants in it, by acting beyond comedy, excelling, with his features, accent and ability to silent expression, in the performance of extravagant characters in the realism of suffocation, siege and anxiety, Just like his colleague Mahmoud “Fahman” Mabsout, who, like him, is difficult to remember his cinematic roles, despite their fewness as well, and despite the fact that Fahman, too, has insufficiently invested acting capabilities, and this is a prejudice, perhaps unintended, but it happens.
And Asaad, as he is able to safely exit from the “Abu Salim Al-Tabla Band”, from time to time, performing various television tournaments, reflecting some of the splendor of acting, in a time that witnesses the scarcity of TV channels / stations, and the abundance of preoccupations, most of which experiment with forms, themes and dramatic previews, And he tests how to act spontaneously and improvised in a live broadcast, before the filming stage. And the ingenuity that emanates from sincerity, transparency, and spontaneity lies in a development that becomes evident, albeit slowly, between one program and another, between one series and another, between one role and another, and sometimes (though rarely) in the same character in the same series as well.
Words like this are said over and over again, but they face tedious sarcasm. Men and women who are volatile, in an ugly era like the one that is passing now, think that this Lebanese TV past is nonsense, reprehensible and useless, and that the “groups” of Abu Salim and Abu Melhem, in particular, are useless in anything, even though these two The two groups, despite the mistakes stemming from that founding moment, and the subsequent ones, constitute an essential part of the story of a country, a meeting, and a people. The country is confused, and some of the society, at least, is trying to find modes of living outside of the tribes that control the country, the society, and the people.
All of this (entertainment, honesty, and veiled instructions) does not preclude various works, which give “Tele Liban” (whatever it is called at the time) something of the origins of a useful television work, which will develop later, and the archive of this television, if it is preserved in its entirety, and this is doubtful, confirms that. . Asaad Maker is an important chapter from that archive/history (the history of a country, a meeting, and people), and his transition to the cinema emanates from the vision of the directors (there are no directors of films in which he participates, if my memory does not betray me). Features that are able to present the cruelty of anger, fatigue, and pain, and pluck out stupidity that is not rooted in self and mind, or perhaps it is a claim of stupidity due to dramatic necessities.
Features also offer Baha’s look at another, or at a city, and “Dweik Ya Dweik” (1973) by Bassem Nasr, for example, is one of the few Lebanese works, on television and cinema, that captured Beirut on the eve of one of the seasons of its devastation, material and spiritual, i.e. its civil war (1975 – 1990). “Dweik Ya Dweik” is similar, by capturing Beirut before a new death for it, to “Beirut Oh Beirut” (1975) by Maroun Baghdadi (1950-1993). This similarity deserves an independent critical reading. Touring with the camera in different parts of the city, which is going to its death, is similar between the series and the movie, specifically in that spontaneous visual documentation, perhaps, of buildings, streets and people, and of cases that shake off, even a little, from an implicit boiling that occurs at that time in the city’s soul and body (“Dweik oh Dweik “, To some extent); And for cases that live the boiling, and perhaps make it, without a decisive realization that the boiling itself will end in the outbreak of a civil war (Beirut, oh Beirut).
I allow myself to go further, and write that Asaad will be, in this series of his, a former synonym for both Kamal (Izzat Al-Alayli) and Hala (Miray Maalouf) in particular, in Maroun Baghdadi’s first feature novel. As if he, through his “rural” wandering around the city, with all its innocence, honesty, spontaneity, astonishment, discovery and search for anything and everything, is perhaps not different from what the people of “Beirut, O Beirut” live in, in search of salvation, or a coup, or a change. And the visual documentation, in the film, is similar, to some extent, to the series’ documentation of that city “running” to its ruin / death.
A scene from “The Belt of Fire” (2004), by the Lebanese Bahij Hajjij, who broadcasts it on his Facebook page as a tribute to Homsi on his departure, is enough to show that beautiful, deep and wonderful amount that Asaad carries in himself and his soul, playing the role of a street coffee seller, during the time of the Lebanese civil war. A few minutes reveal some of the wonderful performance stock of an actor. Lebanese cinema will not give him the position and prestige he deserves. The Egyptian films of Henri Barakat, “Safar Berlak” (1967) and “The Guardian’s Girl” (1968), emphasize his performance vocabulary. (performance) wants more freedom and breadth of action, but it is confined to secondary roles.
It is also disturbing that there are no photographs of Asaad, taken from films, series and television works of his, that are suitable for publication with an article, which would be a statement of his love and the love of his acting performance. Various websites publish inappropriate pictures of his work and style of representation, and are unfit for publication. Therefore, he is forced to publish a picture of Beirut before the outbreak of its death, the one that Asaad / Dweik is trying to absorb in a time that is said to be more beautiful than the present.
I am writing this and asking: Where does Assaad get the basic belongings of an acting that has magic without showing it all? It is not a condescending question, but rather a desire to understand the meaning of spontaneity, honesty and transparency in possessing a beauty in performance that is rarely seen in Lebanese and Arab television works today. These acquisitions, as they arise with spontaneity, honesty, and transparency, with a clear and certain self-occupation, give Asaad a stronger and deeper position in an individual self and a collective memory.
