Etelby Mayssa Jallad

An architect by profession, Mayssa Jallad has made a remarkable record about a set of buildings, like the hotel TivoliVredenburg, originally built to serve the demands of leisure but, tragically, turned into an instrument of war. "Architecture is the ultimate human reflection. You can learn so much about humans and how they behave by studying their architecture. Especially in cities." This record, Marjaa: The Battle Of The Hotels is a dream guide that uses buildings as its protagonists. A good portion soundtracks the history of the world’s first high-rise urban battle; a five month-long shoot-out amidst Beirut’s luxury hotel district of Minet El Hosn during the Lebanese Civil War. Jallad employs a “storytelling approach” across seven songs each named after the hotels. These buildings became the focal points for intolerance, rage, and death; their size and height meant they were repurposed as command posts and deadly sniper points. When the fighting ended, The Green Line was set up, a demarcation dividing Beirut into east and west that lasted until 1990, and polarising a society that is still coming to terms with the echoes of the past. tinyurl.com