8 Questions for Barrack Zailaa Rima

On September 17, 2024, Invisible Publishing will release Barrack Zailaa Rima’s graphic three-volume trilogy, Beirut, available in English for the first time in Carla Calargé and Alexandra Gueydan-Turek’s translation. Each volume retraces a visit Rima made to the Lebanese capital while also bearing witness to events unfolding in Beirut.

Q

The translators’ introductory essay, “Reframing Beirut’s Visual Archive: Barrack Zailaa Rima’s Beirut,” provides great context for the trilogy, which they describe as straddling the line between nonfiction narrative and magical realist fiction. Can you talk a bit about genre?

A

 Thank you for asking this question. It’s my favorite. The distinction between documentary and fiction does not suit me. In a documentary story, there are always choices, frames, selection, and therefore a subjective part. In fiction, we project ourselves into the characters and the story, consciously or not, and we always tell very real facets of ourselves and the world. I obviously don’t want to make this a dogma, nor pretend that this is the case for everyone. But as far as I am concerned, I am attentive to the fluidity between genres and the possible paths in one direction or the other.

Q

Calargé and Gueydan-Turek also write about how your graphic alter ego acts much like a flâneur. I see this throughout the trilogy, in which the characters are constantly in motion. Has your relationship to Beirut been formed through walking its streets? Are you a flâneuse?

A

 Yes, I am a flâneuse for sure! Either in Beirut, Brussels, or any other place. I used to go to Beirut quite often and spent a lot of time walking through its streets without a specific direction or goal, looking to architecture and people, hunting in secondhand booksellers’ bins, climbing abandoned and forbidden spaces, digging literally in the rubble of old buildings, etc. Being a native of Tripoli, I’ve never lived in Beirut (or only for a few months). This is how my relationship to Beirut has been formed.

Q

 Why did you choose to create the trilogy exclusively in black and white?

A

 I don’t feel it’s a choice; it’s intuitive. I prefer black and white (I would add “and gray”) in general, not only for the trilogy. I feel it much more as my language than color, and it was always the case since I started with comics. I like to refer to a famous quote by Orson Welles, who was asked why he prefers to shoot in black and white. Among several things in his answer, he said: because “we have removed one element of reality” (meeting with cinema students at Cinémathèque Française, Paris, 1982).

Q

 How would you describe your relationship with Beirut at this moment?

A

 I dedicated a trilogy to it, twenty years of my life, dreams, hopes, and aspirations. It is pillaged, demolished, and devoured by monsters, emptied of its soul, its stories, and its memory . . . that’s it, this time, I have detached myself from this city. I don’t want to go there anymore, or draw it, or hear about it . . .

That’s what I really wish I could say. But I know that’s not true.

Beirut is pillaged, demolished, and devoured by monsters, emptied of its soul, its stories, and its memory.

Q

 What culture offerings or trends are you most interested in (or concerned about)?

A

 I am passionate about Brechtian theater, particularly contemporary forms of engaged theater and performances, which draw on documents and history.

Q

 Who are some graphic novelists that deserve more attention?

A

 I think of Deena Mohamed, a young Egyptian artist. Her graphic novel Shubeik Lubeik has just been translated and published in English (2023). She is an Eisner Prize nominee. Also Joseph Kai, a queer Lebanese artist (Restless, see below).

Q

 Are there other books, available in English, that grapple with Beirut’s recent history that you would recommend?

A

 Many of the books I would recommend about Beirut are unfortunately not available in English (or am I wrong?). Among them:

(1) the novel Fou de Beyrouth, written in French by Lebanese writer Sélim Nassib;

(2) the graphic novel Madina Moujawira lil Ard (could be translated into “A city close to the earth”), written in Arabic and drawn by Lebanese artist Jorj Abi Mhaya; and

(3) the graphic novel Beirut Bloody Beirut, written in French and drawn by Lebanese artist Tracy Chahwan

Otherwise, available in English:

(1) the graphic novel Restless, by Joseph Kai (Street Noise Books, 2023);

(2) the graphic novel Beirut Won’t Cry, by Mazen Kerbaj (Fantagraphics, 2017); 

(3) the graphic novel I Remember Beirut, by Zeina Abirached (Graphic Universe, 2014); and

(4) the novel Memory for Forgetfulness, by Mahmoud Darwish (University of California Press, 2013)

Q

 What are you watching and listening to these days?

A

 I watch the world drowning deeper and deeper in fascism and listen to the voices screaming: “When will the pain stop?”

I watch the world drowning deeper and deeper in fascism and listen to the voices screaming: “When will the pain stop?”