Wafa’a Celine Halawi and Zakaria Kaakour in a still from Marcelo Gomes’ ‘Portrait of a Certain Orient.’ (Matizar Filmes)
BEIRUT — Marcelo Gomes has remarked that he couldn’t imagine making “Portrait of a Certain Orient,” with Brazilian actors. So it is that the three principal cast members in Gomes’ latest feature are Lebanese. “They were a very important part of the film,” the Brazilian auteur says of Wafa’a Celine Halawi, Zakaria Kaakour, and Charbel Kamel. “Many filmmakers from the U.S. and Europe, they can be kind of Islamophobic, Arabophobic, you know, sometimes even when they don’t want to be. These actors helped me a lot to not misrepresent their society.”This cultural exchange, Gomes smiles, was double-edged.“I told them, ‘Look, I want to make a very sensual scene with a mango.’ They said, ‘A mango? A mango is sensual for you?’ ‘Yes, a mango is very sensual!’ Maybe they find apricots more sensual, I don’t know, but I think that the mango scene with...
BEIRUT — Marcelo Gomes has remarked that he couldn’t imagine making “Portrait of a Certain Orient,” with Brazilian actors. So it is that the three principal cast members in Gomes’ latest feature are Lebanese. “They were a very important part of the film,” the Brazilian auteur says of Wafa’a Celine Halawi, Zakaria Kaakour, and Charbel Kamel. “Many filmmakers from the U.S. and Europe, they can be kind of Islamophobic, Arabophobic, you know, sometimes even when they don’t want to be. These actors helped me a lot to not misrepresent their society.”This cultural exchange, Gomes smiles, was double-edged.“I told them, ‘Look, I want to make a very sensual scene with a mango.’ They said, ‘A mango? A mango is sensual for you?’ ‘Yes, a mango is very sensual!’ Maybe they find apricots more sensual, I don’t know,...