WE LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH
Netherlands 2003 | 80 Min. | BetaSP, OmeU
For half a century now, the Lebanese singer Fairuz has been a living legend in the Arab world, from Iraq to Morocco. Her home is Beirut. Once this city was a thriving seaport ‘the Paris of the Middle East’ - and a haven for those fleeing religious or ethnic persecution. In 1975, however, a civil war that was to rage for fifteen years disturbed this idyllic situation. During this time, Fairuz remained in Beirut and everyone - whether Christian, 45 Muslim, left-wing or right-wing, people from all of the groups that were murdering each other - continued to love this particular singer with all of their heart.
WE LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH portrays the love of diverse Beirut inhabitants for this diva. Through the music and the myth that grew around Fairuz, they tell their life stories, and narrate the tragic, stirring history of their city. Their reminiscences, combined with Fairuz’ songs and her story, provide a moving commentary on Lebanon’s tumultuous history. Women, men, Muslims, Christians, Palestinian and Lebanese refugees, who identify with Fairuz’s songs and feel she is their voice, speak about the influence of her music on their lives and their nostalgia for the years gone by. Jack Janssen has chosen to tell this story of Fairuz through the eyes of her fans, who see her as an unobtainable goddess.