Decay as Political Metaphor in Ely Dagher's Waves' 98 and Mounia Akl's Submarine

Abstract

Lebanese cinema serves as a useful tool with which to assess postwar dynamics given the dominance of the civil war in artistic production since 1990. As the first postwar generation reached adulthood, we have been witnessing the inevitable rise of a 'second wave' of postwar Lebanese cinema, defined as the generation of filmmakers born towards the end of or after the civil war. This essay will analyse two post-war Lebanese films, Ely Dagher's 2015 Waves '98 and Mounia Akl's 2016 Submarine, as unique responses to a feeling of despair brought about by the city/nation, explored through the theme of decay as touched upon by both films by using Jessica Auchter's study of the politics of decay. This in turn would allow us to identify aspects of the second wave of postwar Lebanese cinema.