Under the bombs - تحت القصف

Trailer of "Under the bombs"

Latest movie by Philippe Aractingi, this is an entire new movie, from a concept point of view. No one will deny the new experience that you will enjoy watching. This piece of art will take the human being into another level, and reveal the unmatched experience of a mother in a quest for a lost child amid the atrocity of an indiscriminate war.
So, as mentioned before, the concept is rather new, it's somewhat a fiction movie, yet it have been shot in an improvised way in the following three days after the fighting ended. You'll find mixed shots between 'real' stories, and fictions, thus pushing emotions further. You'll find the line blurred between those scenes showing a talent in directing, and acting and which underlines the capacity of the director to handle documentaries and fiction easily.
Actress Nada Abou Farhat have already been in an Aractingi long feature 'Bosta', but her role gives another dimension of her talents by looking at the difference between both movies (which emphasize the director as well). Georges Khabaz was moving as well.
The movie have been released in Lebanon last December, and is scheduled for release May 14 later this month in France. Though, One issue remains unclear : the movie was aired on French TV two weeks before its release in Big screen, which is usually done in a reverse way, and after a longer period of time. This question remain to be answered. I understand arte contribution to the movie, but this was the case of 'Caramel' as well as other movies, but air timing was different!
Finally, I hope the message of the film get through, and the movie get the attention it deserves.

Philippe Aractingi interview during 'Venice film Festival'

In the shadows of the city - طيف المدينة

a screenshot from "In the Shadows of the City"

This film is among the first produced after the civil war that ravaged Lebanon, so it's natural to find it falling into the category that tries to discuss this issue, and more precisely, we found this movie dealing with the evolution of the Lebanese citizen mind with respect to a conflict ravaging its country.
The starting scene shows a family in the south of the country suffering after fights erupts in that region to decide later to go settle in the capital. The main character is Rami a 12 years old boy of this southern family, he grows to be incarnated by Majdi Machmouchi who plays the role in a highly professional way playing a militia man, an ambulance guy, and a person in love.
Despite the fact that during the shooting of the movie, the reconstruction of Lebanon was on its way, the movie team managed, in some sort of race with time, to get pretty successful shots of the Beirut during the war period, mainly focusing on areas and discreet that have'nt being hit by the reconstruction phase and remained in ruins long after the war is over.
Jean Khalil Chamoun did a great job with his first long feature fiction, with a plot, that does not include any surprises, yet the purpose was to show the influence of the war that manipulates people. He managed to include prominent actors like Ahmad Al Zein and Ammar Chalak... The original music by Omar Bashir was well touching. I'm not aware of other fictions by Chamoun, since he's apparently focusing mainly on documentaries for the moment.
The movie was not a box-office hit in Lebanon once it has been released in 2000, mainly because Lebanese were trying to put (and maybe forget) the past behind focusing on the future. Every Lebanese is urged to watch movies of this kind as a faithful description of the civil war and as a way of understanding that civil fighting does not induce gain to any party.

Dunia - دنيا

Kiss me not on the eyes (Dunia - دنيا) was quite a special movie. First of all, it's an Egyptian movie (if we judge it by the cast, the subject, the location), yet the story, the direction was done by the Lebanese prominent director Jocelyne Saab.
It deals with the issues of females circumcision in Egypt. To do this the director, with a pretty nice cast, made up a story involving love, dance, poetry... all mixed up together into an unusual good sensual Egyptian movie.
The reception of the movie in Egypt was rather disappointing with all the censoring going there, although the film was trying to tackle the circumcision issue from a relative distance so it would be accepted by the Egyptian community.
Jocelyne Saab had been absent from the middle-eastern movies industry scene for about a decade before this movie was revealed. Waiting was surely worth it, her latest is a short named "Broken bridges" or "الجسور المدمرة" about the Israeli indiscriminate aggressive war on the Lebanon. We're waiting for her latest long feature.

Trailer for "Dunia"

Upcoming movies in 2008

So, the year 2007 have almost ended, with films being welcomed by critics such as "Caramel", and "a lost man". "Under the bombs" or "تحت القصف" by Philipe Aractingi - Director of Bosta - will be released on December 20th in Lebanon to continue showing through trough the upcoming 2008 new year. This film have received pretty good critics, and its trailer looks promising. We should note as well the many awards won by this movie, The Gold Muhr award as well as the best actress award for Nada Abou Farhat was awarded lately during the Dubai Film Festival.

Trailer of "Under the bombs"

"Falling from earth" or "و على الأرض السماﺀ" by Chadi Zeneddine, is scheduled to be released later in 2008 and has already premiered during Dubai Film Festival. Some making of the movie have been released lately, with a great cast including Rafic Ali Ahmad, this movie cannot be but something good (Note that this movie was first titled as "Waiting for Beirut").

Making of "Falling from earth"

"Khalass" or "خلص" by Borhan Alaouie has just been released into some theaters in Lebanon. It's ashame that this movie isn't showing on a much greater scale. Maybe because it have not been considered as a commercial movie. It should be noted as well that this movie have been shown as well during the Dubai Film Festival where it have been awarded two awards: the Best Screenplay award and Best Editor Award.

Stills from "Khalass"

"Melodram habibi" or "ميلودراما حبيبي" the first feature by Hany Tamba - Director of Beyrouth after shave - is scheduled to be released as well in 2008 with a mix between a french and Lebanese team. We're expecting the best from a Cezar winner.

Making of "Melodrama Habibi"

With three movies scheduled to be released till now, we hope that the year 2008 will be a good year for the Lebanese film industry despite all the political conflict in the country and the region. Some films are still under developement, but the release date is not yet clear, for instance Joanna Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige - Directors of A perfect day - are working on some project with Catherine Deneuve called "Je veux voir".

Photo from "Je veux voir"

Finally, I'll remind that "Caramel" is set to be released in american theaters on February 1st 2008 (distributed by Roadside Attractions). The American trailer can be seen below.

The American trailer for "Caramel"

Beirut after shave - بيروت بعد الحلاقة

"After shave" the award winning short

OK, you must have find it yourself, but I should note that this post will be the first about a short feature, all past posts were orbiting the long features from Lebanon. It's also as you might have find out yourself the first posts where you can watch the whole video that the post is about (not just a trailer). Passing this introduction, if I can call it that, the short tell the story of one man who couldn't accept the death of his wife during the war. The cast was impressive, grouping Rafic Ali Ahmad along with Julia Kassar and having Mahmoud Mabsout and Fadi Raaydi, no wonder it earned the Cezar, what would it got if it was a long!! The story is nicely written, the music is sensual as well (no surprise here since Khaled mouzanar, Caramel's composer is the one who made it for this short, and Labaki chose him after hearing his work in this movie). It was too good for a short, pretty well done. The only regret is that the director didn't hire a Lebanese-only artistic team, it is not bad to have international collaboration, but it would've been good to find what Lebanese can achieve themself. But sometimes this kind of constraints is imposed by the kind of finance a film get. Anyway Hany Tamba did a great job, you can tell yourself since you can watch the whole short here and tell your opinion. We only wish the best for Tamba, and cannot wait to see his new film Melodrama Habibi out.
Below you can find an interview during the filming of "Melodrama Habibi", more interviews about this movie can be found on my youtube channel.

Interview with Hany Tamba about Melodrama Habibi