Salma Hayek hopes ‘The Prophet’ inspires new generations
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By : SARAH EL DEEB , Associated Press
Mexican and American actress Salma Hayek poses for photographers as she arrives to her international premiere film “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. Hayek is in Lebanon for the film, written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production The Lion King. The film tells the story of a young girl who finds the voice she lost through her friendship with a poet imprisoned for his ideas. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
BEIRUT (AP) — Salma Hayek said on Monday that the animated feature film “The Prophet” she co-produced has been a personal passion project, one she hopes can inspire young viewers to think outside the box about ways to improve the world.
Mexican and American actress Salma Hayek poses for photographers as she arrives to her international premiere film “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. Hayek is in Lebanon for the film, written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production The Lion King. The film tells the story of a young girl who finds the voice she lost through her friendship with a poet imprisoned for his ideas. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Hayek is visiting Lebanon, her ancestral homeland, for the international premiere of the film, written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production “The Lion King.”
Mexican and American actress Salma Hayek poses for photographers as she arrives to her international premiere film “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. Hayek is in Lebanon for the film, written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production The Lion King. The film tells the story of a young girl who finds the voice she lost through her friendship with a poet imprisoned for his ideas. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Hayek told The Associated Press that the movie has a “message of peace.”
“I think the whole world could use a little bit of message of peace, and more than a message of peace, to watch something that’s uplifting for the spirit and joyous, and that you can share with your family, ” Hayek said as she walked down the red carpet for the movie premiere in a downtown Beirut cinema complex.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek poses for photographers next to a poster for the film, “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, on her arrival to a cinema where she gave a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek, whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
The film tells the story of Almitra, a young girl who finds the voice she lost through her friendship with Mustafa, a poet imprisoned for his ideas. Hayek also provides the voice of the girl’s mother, Kamila.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek poses for photographers next to a poster for her film, “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, on her arrival to a cinema where she gave a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
The story is based on the “The Prophet,” a book written in 1923 by iconic Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran that has inspired generations of artists. The book, a series of poems about love, joy, sorrow, and work, has been translated into at least 40 languages and has never been out of print.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek waves to photographers on her arrival to a cinema where she gave a press conference for the film, “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek, whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
The film is divided into chapters illustrated by various animators. The score is by Gabriel Yared, the French composer of Lebanese descent who won an Oscar for his work on the “English Patient.”
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek sits next to film director Roger Allers as she speaks during a press conference for the film “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek, whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Speaking to reporters Monday, Hayek, whose paternal grandparents are Lebanese, described the film as “a love letter to my heritage” that will hopefully encourage new generations to think differently.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek waves to photographers next to a poster for the film, “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, on her arrival to a cinema where she gave a press conference, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek, whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
“Through this book I got to know my grandfather. Through this book I got to have my grandfather teaching me about life. So it is a very personal movie for me,” Hayek told reporters in Beirut ahead of the movie’s premiere. The film opens in cinemas in the United States in August.
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek sits next to film director Roger Allers as she speaks during a press conference for the film “The Prophet,” an animated feature film she co-produced, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 27, 2015. In her first visit to her ancestral homeland, Hayek, whose paternal grandfather was Lebanese and immigrated to Mexico, visited the picturesque mountain village of Bcharre in northern Lebanon on Sunday to pay homage to Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-born poet who wrote “The Prophet,” the book on which the film is based. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Hayek said through illustrations, it was possible to capture the spirit of Gibran’s work.
“It encourages the new generation to go somewhere else to break out of the box” to change the world, she said.
The movie also helped bring to the audience a message of compassion and humanity from an author who comes from a violence-torn region.
Gibran, she said, “is an Arabic writer who wrote philosophy and poetry and who brought all religions and the world together.”
On the red carpet, Hayek, who was wearing a dress by Lebanese designer Elie Saab, said she didn’t read the book to her 7-year-old daughter, Valentina, but has watched the film with her.
“It’s hard for a kid to understand (the Prophet) as it’s written, that’s why we made the movie. She understands it in the film, because she sees the images of the words,” Hayek told AP.
Hayek’s daughter and her father accompanied her on her first trip to Lebanon.
“This has been the most amazing trip. I was not prepared for how emotional it was going to be for my family to be here,” she said.
Yahoo/Associated Press
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17 responses to “Salma Hayek hopes ‘The Prophet’ inspires new generations”
Hannibal
This is what I call a culture… We plant on every shore a Carthage and a Lebanon.
Sure, that’s why he couldn’t find his inspiration but in America and wrote the Prophet… in English
Huryaba huryaba
PS: Just to piss you off, Bsharreh was Syrian back then, and Syria was Ottoman 😛
Ottoman were occupiers that is why they never spoke our language… and we kicked them out of Lebanon. Fakhredine championed free Lebanon so the part of Syria doctrine was rejected since then. Not to piss you off Just to educate you 😛
“We” kicked them out?
Are you Franco-British now?
As for Fakhredin, he was some hero indeed, a clever prince who played his hand… and ended up loosing. There are thousands like him in History… May I remind you that Fakhredin tried to convince the Italians and Spanish to start a new crusade. I’m not sure your fellow Lebanese from other faiths would consider him a (Mount-) Lebanese hero. If you ask Mutih Skeini Fakhredin is certainly a Zionist traitor…
Fakhredine is a Lebanese hero… Whether you like it or not. You do not have to win to be a hero. You only have to try. He had fought to unite the people of Lebanon and seek independence.
BTW how is racist America going for you? Is Baltimore still standing?
Here is poetry for you
Bite the breasts that fed you
Spit in the well that quenched you
That is what defines you
MekensehParty
Did you write this about yourself living in Amrika?
It sure defines YOU!
Hind Abyad
Here’s another poetry
Why am I here,
O God of lost souls,
thou who art lost amongst the gods?
5thDrawer
Some people no longer wait for the usually pedantic ‘law’ to run it’s course … some claim the usual racist bits, and become racists themselves … and some are simply anarchistic in attitude and will happily trash, burn, and loot for anything which is ‘anti-system’.
If they all get an excuse handed to them by improper methods of handling a criminal, as the police have noted is the case while they seek the evidence needed, the crowd just runs amok together. Some may even die from their efforts, and they will hurt their own ‘races’ too. It’s not much different than events in Egypt or Turkey or Ukraine.
Even if one Assumed 5% of a population is of a pre-disposition … more population can make that 5% look like an army of nut-bars, and the ‘everyone’ lines come into play more easily when describing them. It doesn’t really take more. People have had riots and died over football games, where there is no logical reason for that to happen in a game. It’s an excuse to rail against everything in life they perceive as ‘wrong’.
Hannibal
Youssef Bek Karam (May 15, 1823 – April 7, 1889) led a rebellion in 1866-1867 against the Ottoman Empire rule in Mount Lebanon an early expression of Lebanese nationalism.
MekensehParty
poetry…
MekensehParty
The generations (of Lebanese) need to read the book first…
Some need to learn reading before that
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