0:00:09.761,0:00:14.510
The Mediterranean[br]is a pair of chapped lips,

0:00:14.510,0:00:18.269
whose top lip speaks in Latin,

0:00:18.269,0:00:20.513
and whose bottom lip speaks in Arabic.

0:00:20.513,0:00:23.270
And when it tries to swallow,

0:00:23.270,0:00:25.252
when it closes its lips,

0:00:25.252,0:00:26.768
it hurts and it stings.

0:00:26.768,0:00:31.245
It suffers because[br]there are all these borders,

0:00:31.245,0:00:33.462
barbed wire, sentries and checkpoints

0:00:33.462,0:00:35.505
around the Mediterranean,

0:00:35.505,0:00:38.518
which prevent it from speaking.

0:00:38.518,0:00:41.748
In 2011, I was in Marseille[br]at the time of the Arab Springs,

0:00:41.748,0:00:44.758
and it felt like there were[br]free individuals there

0:00:44.758,0:00:46.761
who were speaking out again,

0:00:46.761,0:00:53.378
who were refusing to be taken away[br]in these barbed wire sacks,

0:00:54.238,0:00:59.752
and were taking back their right to exist[br]and to say what they wanted to say.

0:00:59.752,0:01:04.208
In that moment, I thought[br]that the right thing to do

0:01:04.208,0:01:05.981
was to go and listen to them.

0:01:05.981,0:01:07.508
Meaning,

0:01:07.508,0:01:11.261
to no longer view the Mediterranean[br]as a group of Nation States

0:01:11.261,0:01:14.258
that do not talk to each other,

0:01:14.258,0:01:20.771
but as a community of inhabitants[br]that don't know each other very well,

0:01:20.771,0:01:26.762
and to go listen to them[br]and create a giant library,

0:01:26.762,0:01:29.518
a communal database, copyright free,

0:01:29.518,0:01:34.508
a library of true stories[br]from the inhabitants of the Mediterranean,

0:01:34.508,0:01:37.272
in every Mediterranean language.

0:01:37.272,0:01:39.242
In 2013, I proposed this in Marseille,

0:01:39.242,0:01:41.522
which was then Cultural Capital.

0:01:41.522,0:01:43.756
So, from December 2011,

0:01:43.756,0:01:46.968
I embarked on my little speaking tour.

0:01:46.968,0:01:48.758
I started in Barcelona,

0:01:48.758,0:01:50.954
I wasn't too sure how to do it at first,

0:01:50.954,0:01:53.358
so I went to see people on benches,

0:01:53.358,0:01:54.762
and little by little,

0:01:54.762,0:01:59.502
we came up with a number[br]of options to collect these stories.

0:01:59.502,0:02:01.760
You can collect true stories,

0:02:01.760,0:02:04.265
just by being face-to-face[br]with someone you've met.

0:02:04.265,0:02:07.248
It's possible to do this together here.

0:02:07.248,0:02:09.765
You'll all come up and tell a true story.

0:02:09.765,0:02:11.761
We can have candlelight vigils,

0:02:11.761,0:02:14.607
we can make discussion tables, etc.

0:02:14.607,0:02:16.666
There are so many ways to collect them.

0:02:16.666,0:02:19.490
There are so many ways[br]to reproduce these stories, too.

0:02:19.490,0:02:25.260
All of the arts obviously[br]can retell these stories.

0:02:25.260,0:02:27.760
So I began like this in Spain.

0:02:27.760,0:02:30.735
Next I was in Morocco in January of 2012.

0:02:30.735,0:02:33.669
Then in Algeria,[br]and there, the project took off

0:02:33.669,0:02:37.080
because there was a huge amount[br]of Algerian stories that came in

0:02:37.080,0:02:40.709
both in text-form on the website,[br]which gathered them,

0:02:40.709,0:02:43.507
and then I met tons of people.

0:02:43.507,0:02:47.516
So there, the collection really got going[br]in February 2012.

0:02:47.516,0:02:49.273
Then I was in Tunisia,

0:02:49.273,0:02:52.775
and there as well,[br]there were really amazing meetings.

0:02:52.775,0:02:56.506
Following that, I wasn't able to go[br]to Libya with what was going on,

0:02:56.506,0:02:57.959
and so I went to Egypt.

0:02:57.959,0:03:02.262
I arrived in Lebanon[br]and continued to collect stories.

0:03:02.262,0:03:03.769
I was in Beirut a lot.

0:03:03.769,0:03:06.753
At one point, I was invited to Hammana,

0:03:06.753,0:03:10.994
which is a little town[br]on the uplands of Mount Lebanon,

0:03:10.994,0:03:15.226
a little town with a Christian majority,[br]about 45 minutes from Beirut.

0:03:15.226,0:03:19.248
I arrived there[br]and the people were waiting for me.

0:03:19.248,0:03:21.151
Everyone was in the library,

0:03:21.151,0:03:24.505
it was like a candlelight vigil,[br]but in the middle of all these books.

0:03:24.505,0:03:26.764
And there, we all took turns speaking.

0:03:26.764,0:03:28.257
I told a story,

0:03:28.257,0:03:30.771
and the people, the eldest, the youngest,

0:03:30.771,0:03:33.932
in French, in Arabic,[br]told their stories to each other.

0:03:33.932,0:03:38.236
They chose - and this is what[br]I asked the people each time -

0:03:38.236,0:03:41.749
from the story of their lives,[br]from birth up until now,

0:03:41.749,0:03:45.262
"What would be the story[br]that you want to share

0:03:45.262,0:03:46.736
with the rest of the world?

0:03:46.736,0:03:51.246
What would be the incredible anecdote[br]you have in your heart, that's dear to you

0:03:51.246,0:03:56.769
and that you want to pool[br]in a large library?"

0:03:57.479,0:03:59.533
And with that, I had tons of stories,

0:03:59.533,0:04:02.527
and then we met for drinks at the end.

0:04:02.527,0:04:05.977
There was a woman named[br]Samira Fakhoury who was the library head,

0:04:05.977,0:04:09.218
who said to me, "There is one story[br]that I haven't told."

0:04:09.218,0:04:12.768
It takes place in 1976.

0:04:13.748,0:04:18.264
It was the first year[br]of the Lebanese civil war,

0:04:18.264,0:04:24.458
it was also the year when the Syrian army[br]came to occupy Lebanon.

0:04:24.464,0:04:27.512
Especially in Hammana,[br]they set up channels

0:04:27.512,0:04:31.778
to bombard Beirut,[br]and waited for the counterattack.

0:04:32.268,0:04:34.492
When Samira and her husband saw this,

0:04:34.492,0:04:37.778
they decided to get the children to safety

0:04:37.778,0:04:40.254
in the Beqaa Valley, next to Zahlé,

0:04:40.254,0:04:42.760
while they stayed in Hammana

0:04:42.760,0:04:46.779
to take care of the family houses[br]so that they wouldn't be pillaged.

0:04:46.779,0:04:48.508
So there were three homes,

0:04:48.508,0:04:49.770
and they stayed,

0:04:49.770,0:04:52.496
they had a grandmother[br]in one of the other houses,

0:04:52.496,0:04:56.270
and the other was [br]requisitioned by Syrian officers,

0:04:56.270,0:04:58.496
so they lived in one of their houses.

0:04:58.496,0:04:59.510
They were neighbors,

0:04:59.510,0:05:05.754
and in the Spring, like every year,[br]Samira and her husband argue.

0:05:05.754,0:05:08.504
And they always argue over the same thing:

0:05:08.504,0:05:10.282
the poplars.

0:05:10.742,0:05:13.636
They have four poplars[br]that are next to the garden,

0:05:13.636,0:05:15.214
and I don't know if you've seen,

0:05:15.214,0:05:19.265
but the poplars make[br]little cotton balls, buds,

0:05:19.265,0:05:22.771
and those balls get all over the gardens,

0:05:22.771,0:05:25.191
and every Spring, it's the same thing,

0:05:25.191,0:05:28.523
Samira's husband tells her,[br]"This is the last year,

0:05:28.523,0:05:31.190
'khalass', those poplars,[br]I'm going to get rid of them,

0:05:31.190,0:05:33.025
I'm going to chop down the poplars."

0:05:33.025,0:05:35.592
And Samira tells him,[br]"But you don't want to do that!

0:05:35.592,0:05:38.871
We've got to live with the trees,[br]they give us shade in the summer."

0:05:38.871,0:05:41.981
And at that moment, there's[br]a Syrian officer who's passing by

0:05:41.981,0:05:45.298
and hears this and it's the first time[br]he's heard them argue.

0:05:45.318,0:05:48.113
He says, [br]"Is there a problem, Mrs.Fakhouri?"[br]

0:05:48.113,0:05:50.024
She is so upset after her husband,

0:05:50.024,0:05:54.070
and maybe it's the tension linked[br]to the occupation and the war as well.

0:05:54.070,0:05:57.011
She looks at the officer like this

0:05:57.011,0:05:59.919
and says, "It's my husband,[br]he's going to divorce me.

0:05:59.919,0:06:01.931
that's it. He wants to divorce me."

0:06:01.931,0:06:05.778
The Syrian officer there and hears this,

0:06:05.778,0:06:09.771
and we don't know what he has,[br]but it just so happens that he's moved,

0:06:09.771,0:06:13.784
maybe it's been months[br]since he's seen his wife too,

0:06:15.764,0:06:17.760
and there he says,

0:06:17.760,0:06:21.767
"But why? He can't do that...

0:06:21.767,0:06:25.771
He can't make this decision.[br]He has to reflect on it longer!

0:06:26.251,0:06:28.528
Mariage is sacred!

0:06:28.528,0:06:31.239
He can't divorce you like that,[br]Mrs.Fakhouri.

0:06:31.239,0:06:33.501
You are a very good wife, etc."

0:06:33.501,0:06:36.276
Samira says to him,[br]"He wants to divorce me,

0:06:36.276,0:06:39.241
and Mister Syrian Officer,[br]I'll tell you why."

0:06:39.241,0:06:42.243
The Syrian officer says, "No,[br]I don't want to know anything.

0:06:42.243,0:06:44.999
Listen, it's your personal history.

0:06:44.999,0:06:48.019
It's your private life,[br]I don't want to know anything."

0:06:48.019,0:06:51.038
She says to him, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,[br]I want to tell you why.

0:06:51.038,0:06:53.502
You see these poplars,[br]Mister Syrian Officer,

0:06:53.502,0:06:55.289
you see these four poplars,

0:06:55.289,0:06:58.249
well they make those little cotton balls.

0:06:58.249,0:07:00.111
They fall and get all over his garden.

0:07:00.111,0:07:01.655
He was to cut down the poplars,

0:07:01.655,0:07:04.763
and I don't want him to,[br]so he's going to divorce me."

0:07:05.503,0:07:09.018
The Syrian officer looks at her[br]like this, and says,

0:07:09.018,0:07:11.259
"That's your problem, Mrs.Fakhouri?"

0:07:11.259,0:07:14.479
That's your problem?"

0:07:14.479,0:07:20.491
So he goes back and calls his soldiers.

0:07:20.491,0:07:22.953
He calls them like animals,

0:07:22.953,0:07:25.772
he says, " 'Hayawan'! Come my soldiers.

0:07:25.772,0:07:29.752
Gather around Mrs.Fakhouri's garden."

0:07:29.752,0:07:32.524
All the soldiers gather.

0:07:33.254,0:07:36.746
The officer says, "You see these[br]four poplars?"

0:07:36.746,0:07:39.524
The soldiers, "Yes,[br]we see the four poplars."

0:07:39.524,0:07:42.212
"Well soldiers,

0:07:42.212,0:07:48.291
you're going to pick[br]all the buds from the poplars."

0:07:48.747,0:07:50.501
And then Samira says to me,

0:07:50.501,0:07:56.266
"I saw the Syrian army, climbing[br]three-by-three up into my poplars -

0:07:56.266,0:07:58.748
I wanted to take a photo,[br]but I didn't dare -

0:07:58.748,0:08:02.255
and delicately pick[br]the buds from these poplars,

0:08:02.255,0:08:05.256
then climb down and put them in bags.

0:08:05.256,0:08:09.763
And I thought, "Now,[br]this Syrian officer has a heart!

0:08:09.763,0:08:11.785
He was scared for my marriage."

0:08:14.485,0:08:17.250
She tells me this, and with that,[br]the evening was over.

0:08:18.020,0:08:20.982
And then I continue my trek.

0:08:20.982,0:08:24.528
I went to Turkey next,[br]a lot of time in Izmir.

0:08:25.488,0:08:28.278
In Greece, in Athens.

0:08:29.738,0:08:32.267
In Sicily, I only did Sicily in Italy.

0:08:32.267,0:08:34.502
I finished with Israel,

0:08:34.502,0:08:38.746
where I spent bit of time[br]in Tel-Aviv, in the Kibbutz,

0:08:38.746,0:08:40.518
in Haifa, in Nazareth.

0:08:40.518,0:08:41.818
And then in Palestine,

0:08:41.818,0:08:45.260
where I started in Hebron,[br]which was a real shock,

0:08:45.770,0:08:49.526
then Ramallah,[br]then Nablus, then Bethlehem.

0:08:49.526,0:08:53.239
And then I spent some time writing

0:08:53.239,0:08:56.761
from all these stories[br]that had been collected,

0:08:56.761,0:08:58.262
in two different forms:

0:08:58.262,0:09:01.520
the stories, to redistribute them,[br]to retell them to the people.

0:09:01.520,0:09:03.986
In book form, "The Moon in the Well"

0:09:03.986,0:09:06.489
which is the collection of true stories,

0:09:06.489,0:09:08.506
where I give the example,

0:09:08.506,0:09:11.738
and that's what I would like[br]us all to try together,

0:09:11.738,0:09:14.258
each time we tell each other[br]a true story,

0:09:14.258,0:09:15.940
I don't know if you've done it

0:09:15.940,0:09:19.252
when I told you this story[br]about the poplars in bloom,

0:09:19.252,0:09:24.020
but we'll end by reflecting[br]on ourselves in the mirror,

0:09:24.020,0:09:25.506
on our own true stories.

0:09:25.506,0:09:27.964
And so in this book,[br]"The Moon in the Well",

0:09:27.964,0:09:31.525
I am also telling my own true stories,

0:09:31.525,0:09:33.777
from birth up until now.

0:09:34.737,0:09:36.247
I did it,

0:09:36.247,0:09:38.759
I made sound creations for ARTE Radio,

0:09:38.759,0:09:41.265
and then a few months ago,

0:09:41.265,0:09:46.260
with a group of people[br]who all have different competences,

0:09:46.260,0:09:50.248
we created an association that is called[br]The Mediterranean's True Story,

0:09:50.248,0:09:52.991
and I initiated that,

0:09:52.991,0:09:55.016
so far, there are 1,500 true stories

0:09:55.016,0:09:58.768
that are in this library,[br]in this database,

0:09:58.768,0:10:02.661
and the idea is to have thousands and[br]thousands of them, and to move forward,

0:10:02.661,0:10:05.494
and so we will send[br]authors, artists of all kinds,

0:10:05.494,0:10:10.772
researchers to the four[br]corners of the Mediterranean,

0:10:10.772,0:10:14.132
so that they can get closer[br]to the inhabitants in their homes,

0:10:14.132,0:10:15.186
to listen to people,

0:10:15.186,0:10:17.773
because this is what is really[br]necessary today.

0:10:17.773,0:10:19.267
It starts from the individual.

0:10:19.977,0:10:23.765
I think the Mediterranean[br]is a good scale,

0:10:23.765,0:10:26.238
from the moment we don't consider it

0:10:26.238,0:10:28.510
on the Nation-State level,

0:10:28.510,0:10:33.252
or consider it apart from,[br]or beyond its borders.

0:10:34.492,0:10:36.529
And it's on the individual level

0:10:36.529,0:10:39.230
where it seems like[br]we can rebuild something,

0:10:39.230,0:10:43.028
that's why it's very important to me[br]to make this gesture,

0:10:43.028,0:10:46.772
to go and listen to people,[br]whoever they may be,

0:10:46.772,0:10:51.749
to initiate this conversation, these[br]narratives, these true stories together,

0:10:51.749,0:10:55.779
and then perhaps, the Mediterranean[br]can finally be made.

0:10:55.779,0:10:57.057
(Applause)