After becoming a global name last year with her film Capernaum nominated for several prestigious international awards, like the Golden Globe and the Oscars, Nadine Labaki is back again under the spotlight and this time to grace the screens as an actress in a new movie.
From debuting as an actor to evolving into a successful filmmaker, Labaki is back to acting and this time new in a Lebanese film titled 1982.
It will be screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which launches on Sept. 5th until Sept 15th.
1982 is directed by filmmaker Oualid Mouanness and tells the story of an 11-year-old boy, Wissam, who is trying to tell his classmate Joanna that he loves her but gets caught up in airstrikes that hit Beirut at the start of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The debut from director Oualid Mouaness is set at a private school where Labaki plays the role of Yasmeen, an anguished school teacher who struggles to keep it together amid the 1982 Siege of Beirut.
Nadine Labaki’s acting career started during the early 2000s where she used to act in short films.
In 2006, she directed and played one of the leading roles in her first feature film Caramel.
Caramel focuses on the lives of five Lebanese women dealing with issues such as forbidden love, binding traditions, repressed sexuality, the struggle to accept the natural process of age, and duty versus desire.
In 2010, Labaki directed and starred in her second feature film, Where Do We Go Now?
It tells the story of a remote, isolated and unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. A church and a mosque stand side by side as the women of the village try to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war.
1982 is already gaining momentum. It is one of the Arab productions that are set to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) now, before hitting the movie theatres in the next few months.
