At once a love letter to Beirut’s long-destroyed Piccadilly Theater–once the largest cinema screen in the country–and an experimental staging of Sophocles’ Elektra, Elektra, My Love is a largely unscripted and heartbreaking look at people struggling to endure chaos and trauma through art.
As a child in Beirut, director Hisham Bizri was sent to the Piccadilly to watch movies all day because it was the safest place to endure civil war. Drawn to the eerie confines of this abandoned theater, Bizri stages a production of Sophocles’ Elektra. Working with some of Lebanon’s greatest actresses, and touching on the themes of deception, justice, and revenge, the story takes on a special relevance to the events that have plagued Beirut for five decades. Inspired in part by the films of Ingmar Bergman, and shot through with despair and memory, Elektra, My Love is a decidedly strange and compelling examination of memory and suffering.
Director Biography
Filmmaker Hisham Bizri was born in Beirut and makes acclaimed films that have screened in film festivals around the world, including Sundance. He worked with such luminaries as Raúl Ruiz and Miklós Jancsó, and has over 25 short films to his credit. Elektra, My Love (2021) is his debut feature.
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