A Frown Gone Mad
In a Lebanese beauty salon, Bouba injects her clients with Botox and fillers. The close-ups of the tortured and bleeding faces are as gruesome as they are intriguing. Customers vent their worries as they paralyze their expressions. Meanwhile, war is at the door.
Film, single channel, 71 min. 12 sec.
2024
Written and Directed by: Omar Mismar
Featuring: Bouba
Voice Over: Tanya Awad
Editing: Omar Mismar
Editing Contribution: Carine Doumit
Sound Mixing: Raed Younan
Color Grading: Belal El Hibri
Dialogue Translation: Ziad Chakaroun, Omar Mismar
Developed, in part, during a 2022–2024 Boris Lurie Fellowship at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School. It has been supported by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics and the Boris Lurie Art Foundation.
“By the end, the face becomes a site of circulation. The neurotoxin circulates under the skin; the face circulates through social media; the feed's standards circulate back into the face and deeper into self-image. A TikTok influencer boasts 87,000 followers. Clients speak of 'internal happiness' even as they bargain for 'the real thing'. In the closing talk of 'life fillers' versus temporary ones, A Frown Gone Mad lands a blunt distinction: there are substances that smooth the surface, and there are structures that make a life bearable. The face can be stilled. The world that produces the frown keeps moving - and the camera, unwavering, refuses to blink.”
— Arta Barzanji, Art Monthly no. 494, March 2026