Farouk Beloufa’s single feature film, Nahla (1979), stands as a remarkable, deeply political drama within the history of Arab cinema, capturing the fraught atmosphere of Beirut at the very onset of the Lebanese Civil War. Though shot in 1978, the film is set three years earlier in January 1975, immediately following the famous Battle of Kfar Chouba.The elliptically structured narrative intertwines the lives of four characters, each embodying the pan-Arab leftist intellectualism and political currents of the 1970s that connected Algeria, Lebanon, and Palestine. The central figure is Larbi, an Algerian journalist who arrives in West Beirut and becomes entangled in the emerging disorder. He crosses paths with three activist women: Nahla, a talented young Palestinian singer who tragically loses her voice on stage; her sister, Maha, a sharp feminist journalist; and Hind, a dedicated Palestinian activist who establishes a vital link to the refugee camps before ultimately joining the resistance.Nahla is rich with cultural and historical references, its narrative linearity driven by real-life political events from the Battle of Kfar Chouba to the assassinations of Saudi King Faisal and Maarouf Saad. These events heighten the tension among the characters, whose relationships are strained by the anticipation of war. The silence imposed by Nahla’s breakdown, juxtaposed with the sounds of imminent conflict, raises a profound question: What is the role of music when the norm is the sound of bombs?Co-written with Rachid Boudjedra and produced by Radio Télévision Algérienne, Nahla showcases Beloufa’s masterful blend of fiction and reality. Influenced by filmmaker Youssef Chahine, Beloufa crafted a powerful film, featuring beautiful music by Ziad Rahbani (who also appears in the film), which ultimately symbolizes the shattering situation and the mood of a pivotal era. The film left a significant mark, even inspiring director Beloufa’s son, Neïl, decades later. Marianne Khoury