Already with a few awards up its sleeve from the Venice Film Festival, the Dubai International Film Festival and a Human Rights Film Award, this brilliantly crafted movie deserves an Oscar of some kind, or a few for that matter.
Shot 10 days after the war in Lebanon began on July 2006, the film follows the story of Zeina, an upper class Lebanese Shiite who lives in Dubai played by Nada Abou Farhat, and Tony, a Christian taxi driver who lives in Beirut played by Georges Khabbaz. Zeina has left her son with her sister in Kherbet Selem while she tries to sort out a messy divorce. As soon as the war breaks out she travels back to Lebanon, arriving at the Beirut port looking for someone to take her across the country. There the only person willing to do so is driver Tony. The two are launched into a road trip like no other made up to date across a devastated country in search of Zeina’s lost son. And despite their different backgrounds they have no choice but to become close in the face of so much loss and suffering.
Directed by Franco-Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi who’s known for his documentaries and BOSTA, the country’s first post war musical and chosen piece to represent Lebanon at the 2006 Oscars and written by French American Michel Leviant, TV and cinema screen writer (Le Prix du Silence, Pardaillan, D’Artagnan’s daughter). The audacious move to make a movie with only two actors and all the extras playing themselves has definitely paid off. Despite Aractingi’s affirmation: “In my film, I avoided showing dead bodies, we’ve seen too many of them”, we can’t help but to feel the heavy presence of those unseen bodies in the tears and the real life accounts from the extras.
To be released 21 March in the UK, this is not just a masterpiece but also a refreshing take on film making that shouldn’t be missed.
