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"My role as a writer is to create positive myths," says Amin Maalouf. The Lebanese-born novelist and journalist also acknowledges "the material that history gives me." This program features conversations with Maalouf about his imaginative, historically grounded novels and his identity as a Christian Arab living in Paris. On-screen readings by the author present excerpts and themes from Leo Africanus, Rock of Tanios, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, and In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong. While Maalouf's views on recent Middle East conflicts reveal a degree of skepticism, the staging of Kaija Saariaho's opera L'amour de loin, for which Maalouf wrote the libretto, evokes his faith in the power of cross-cultural connections. (French with English subtitles, 30 minutes)
