Georges Nasser

Born in Tripoli in 1927, Georges Nasser studied cinema at UCLA in Hollywood and returned to his native country with the firm determination to make films in an environment where the industry was non-existent. In 1957 he directed Ila Ayn (Towards the Unknown), which became the first film to represent Lebanon in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Nasser repeated the same remarkable feat with The Little Stranger, also selected at Cannes in 1962. A period of relentlessness and disillusionment followed. In 1975, Nasser shot his third film "Al Matloub Rajol Wahed" (A Man is Needed) in Syria. Although the film's future looked promising, the eruption of the Lebanese civil war put an end to its career. Unlike the new wave of young Lebanese filmmakers who filmed the war, such as Maroun Baghdadi, Borhane Alaouie, Jocelyne Saab, Randa Chahal and Jean Chamoun, Nasser did not follow suit. Nevertheless, at no point did he consider leaving the country. He worked as a production manager on a few foreign films, such as Volker Schlöndorff's Circle of Deceit, and continued to write and seek funding opportunities for his screenplays. Unfortunately, time passed and money did not arrive. Nasser began to fight on another front: the creation of a Lebanese union of film technicians, another attempt that proved unsuccessful because of the incompetence of the state and the ministries concerned. Nasser finally found a satisfactory vocation as a teacher at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA). He educates new generations in the art of making films. At the age of 89, he still has not retired, and his eyes shine when he talks about his great love of cinema.