Art Box #7: The Secret Garden by Nour Ouayda

First, you notice one plant — a small green thing pushing out of a crack in the pavement. You don’t think much of it. Cities grow weeds the way people grow habits — accidentally. But then another appears. Near the bakery. Then one on the stairs to the metro. Then a tall one leaning over a balcony, like it’s watching traffic. This is how The Secret Garden begins. A contemplative botanical mystery unfolding across the streets of Beirut. The film is part of Nour Ouayda’s solo show The Poetry of the Unseen, now live on CIFRA.

Nour Ouayda is a filmmaker and film programmer whose practice moves between documentary observation and invented storytelling. Her films often begin with fragments of real life — street recordings, overheard conversations, stray images — and then slowly braid them with fictional narration, conveyed through on-screen text or voice over.

Reality is not replaced by imagination but rather becomes slightly porous. Text, sound, and image interact like characters in the same story. A voice might describe something that never appears on screen. A landscape might contradict the narration. A casual observation might suddenly feel prophetic. Nour’s films have screened internationally — from Centre Pompidou and Museo Reina Sofía to CPH:DOX, Viennale, and FIDMarseille — but they retain the feeling that the story could start anywhere. Possibly even outside your window.