‘It was like magic to see that people, despite their differences, could come together’

Actor, director, producer

CAROLE ABBOUD

Carole Abboud is a highly regarded Beirut-based actor, director and producer. She has starred in numerous films made in Lebanon and beyond, including Phantom Beirut, Never Leave Me and Terra Incognita, which premiered at Cannes. Normally an optimist, she hit an all-time low after the failure of the 2019 revolution and the collapse of Lebanon’s economy: “A veil was ripped off,” she says.

When Lebanese people first took to the streets to protest “it was like magic”, she says. “To see that people, despite all their differences, were united enough to be in one place, it was good to turn things upside down.”

That hope was dashed as the revolution stalled and the scale of Lebanon’s economic woes became clear. Then came the Beirut blast. Abboud was meant to meet a director that evening at a cafe by the port but neither called to confirm, so she stayed at home. “I wasn’t injured, but I was in shock. And we’re still, all of us, very traumatised.”

Since then, in her professional life at least, Abboud has never been busier. Thanks to the spike in demand for home entertainment during Covid, she’s been starring in numerous TV shows, including an Egyptian horror series, The Visit. Last year, she won a best performance award at the Cairo film festival for her role in the Lebanese film Riverbed. Currently, she is rehearsing in Beirut for an ambitious multidisciplinary project involving theatre, music and dance.

Her work has always been political. Along with many in her generation, growing up during the 1975-90 civil war, she had “a will to build a better future for others” by trying to help reunite a country riven by religious and political differences.

But she worries that she’s lost her ability to dream of a better tomorrow. “I don’t think, in this survival mode, I can come up with a clear vision of any future. A bit of love and care would be enough for now, to help me wait for this dark tunnel to end.”