I have been living in Germany for the past nine years. Since my first day here I’ve never stopped comparing it to my own country, Lebanon. I now feel the need to talk about my two cultures, the people, their traditions, their ways of thinking and the inevitable clash.
With this film I wish to stress on how little we know about each other, how ignorant we are when it comes to history and its influence on people, how different Lebanese and Germans are and yet how similar they remain when it comes to feelings.
During my childhood, despite the wars my family and I endured, everyone portrayed the world to me in pink. They thought they would protect me by not telling me the truth about life. During those years, I grew older but never really grew up. Life stopped so often for us while it was going on for the rest of the world. We had no electricity and no water but jasmine blossomed on our balconies. We had picnics, holidays and birthday cakes but in between we ran so often to the shelters. Bombs and cockroaches frightened us and ceasefires made us happy. Ceasefires equalled silence and birds twittering.
As is the case with the main protagonist, DALIA, the women of my generation - Christian and Muslim alike - were not only traumatised by the war but they also were constantly being brainwashed into studying for an honours degree, getting married and having children before the age of thirty!
On the other hand, our mothers had lost their youth and passions over the long years of war. Some could not express their love without disregarding their children’s real needs and, in a way, damaging their development. This trait is shared by many Lebanese and Arabic families and characterizes the colossal influence mothers have on their children’s lives.
The world is pink is a love story that doesn’t shy away from butterflies-in-the-stomach, complexity and pain. The lovers are from such different cultures, Lebanese and German, that the narrative inevitably combines humour and drama. It hinges on a central dichotomy that contrasts war-torn children with fairytales. It is also a story about embracing our families despite the harm they might have done. It is about not giving up our pink expectations and learning to grow from disappointment. And mainly it is about committing when we love despite all the differences.