Le Grand Théâtre des Mille et Une Nuits is a historical landmark in the centre of Beirut. Built in the late 1920s, it played host to international performances, films and was an icon of contemporary Middle Eastern culture. After the 1975 civil war, the building suffered structural damage and was eventually boarded up and forgotten. There was no attempt to revive the theatre until the people’s revolution of 2019, which led to its barriers finally being pulled down.

Before the revolution, it was impossible to gauge the depth of Lebanon’s rich history due to the disappearance of historical spaces. “This theater is a house of song that needs to be resurrected,” says directors Aya Atoui and Anthony Sahyoun. “The gaps in cultural history make it impossible to ascertain what Lebanon would have been like if it wasn’t war-torn.”

“Space has a way of unraveling secrets and, due to the powers that be, Lebanon has had its fair share,” say the directors, alluding to the cataclysmic Beirut explosion on 4 August 2020. “Despite all the trials and tribulations Lebanon has faced in the past thirty years, there are still people striving for invention.”

The resurrection of the Grand Théâtre invites a new generation to engage in the city’s past and consider the city's uncertain future. “This film isn’t trying to portray a glimmer of hope, but to show that the Lebanese live within this paradigm of beauty and chaos, of what is and what could have been,” say Atoui and Sahyoun, “This is a perpetual condition in which we live”.

Text by Sihaam Naik