33 days (Drama) - ٣٣ يوم

Trailer for the drama 33 days

Not to be confused with the documentary, 33 days is a historical drama that attempts to build a feature during the start of the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006. It depicts the first few days at Ayta el Chaab during the 33 days of the war where Israel mercilessly shelled and bombed indiscriminately Lebanon, especially the southern villages. The armed resistance and the population manages to fight back. As advertised, the joint Iranian-Lebanese production resulted in a big budget movie bloated with high comparse number and special effects such as explosions and computer-generated imagery (CGI). The integration of the effects enjoyed an elegant level of realism. The cast members included some acclaimed actors and some young ones. Carmen Lebboss acting dwarfs all the other performances, this huge gap is somewhat annoying to the viewer. Darine Hamze is proving her talent as an actor by selecting a role that differs radically from her previous ones each time. She manages to deliver some acceptable performance despite the use of the Hebrew which she learned to play the associated role. Unlike the cast and the special effects, the script lacks polishing and reviews. This experience should help the movie makers in the future to learn from current mistakes to produce better films. While this movie may entertain the viewers, personally, I find the same titled documentary a more educating and mind catching reel. Note that while the documentary focuses on the war away from the front line from refugees and civilians perspective for the whole 33 days, this current drama point the camera almost exclusively on the fought battles in the southern villages for the first few days only not 33 days as the title misleads. Another note, the finishing credits doesn't use Arabic at all in the role description of the crew.

Update: Some theaters in Lebanon canceled or postponed the screening of the movie. This is sad news, it can be only considered as a form of censorship, not a government censorship, but rather politically motivated one.

Zozo - زوزو

Trailer for "Zozo"

This film is a Lebanese-Swedish movie, directed by the Lebanese-Swedish Joseph Fares. It's not the first to show the Lebanese civil war from children eyes (check for West Beirut, and In the Battlefields) but it shows how the war and its consequences follows a kid beyond the country's borders. So for a boy, once in Sweden, his life is not necessary easier than how it was back in a flaming Lebanon. In fact, I found that in this movie, Zozo's life in Lebanon was full (relatively) of joy, while when he arrived to Sweden it was reduced almost only to disappointments, some may think that it contradicts expectations, some my not share the same opinion, but either way, it was a beautiful way to present such a transition for a young child. In fact, it goes beyond to show how hard for an immigrant (young or old) to integrate into a foreign society (here the grandfather mark a good example).
From what I could've understand, the story is a fiction, but related somewhat to the director's life since he left Lebanon during the civil war when he was ten years old. Following Danielle Arbid and Ziad Doueiri's way to make peace with their past.
Globally the film was good, make fair use of special effects (I think that funding films in Sweden is easier than Lebanon). Actors were pretty good as well; Antoinette Turk's (playing Rita) acted nicely,
Imad Creidi's (as Zozo) role surprised me with his Swedish language and good performance for a child of his age. And then there is Carmen Lebbos, playing perfectly, as she always do, the mother role model.
The script was nicely written from a child eyes, things go smoothly. Though I should point to some minor flaws that come up when trying to see things rationally. For instance, how can a ten years old child go from east Beirut to the mountains (walking??!), then to the airport that easy in a city shredded into two parts? Then once in Sweden writing to Rita without having her address.
In the end I remind that this feature was the representative for Sweden for the 78th academy awards. It needs to be seen since it's a nicely done good movie.

In the Battlefields - معارك حب

In the battlefields trailer

In the battlefields is among my preferred Lebanese films. It's an auto-biography of the writer/director Danielle Arbid, mixed with some fiction. Although the story tells how a friendship between two girls of different ages evolves through the time of war, throughout the film we see that this friendship became more important for the little girl than the family relation itself. Some may find the film itself as violent, but before coming to such conclusion, is there a way to escape this fact when we tell a story about the time of war?
One of the best scenes there is when Arbid gets in the car (yes there is a shot when Arbid appears in the film), and the old lebanese song starts. I liked as well Carmen Lebbos acting, she's a really skilled actress, we found her in a great part of new Lebanese films as a mother, but a different one every time.
The ending scene is a success: I loved it, yet we see in a way a similar ending scene in the coming film "A lost man".
Even though the film is the first long feature film for Arbid, I found it reflecting life in war in an honest way. The film was awarded in Cannes 2004 during the Directors' Fortnight. But I was a bit astound that the film weren't celebrated in Lebanon with a huge croud, Maybe because Lebanese during that period weren't interrested of hearing about a war that they thought they put it behind ... After all the real issue that the film was discussing is about the cause of that civil war that ravaged Lebanon for some 15+ years (is it really over). It shows that the war started from inside, since even in the same family no one can support the other. Denying though the claims that it's the others war on Lebanese soil (it might be true, but if Lebanese weren't an accepting subject it wouldn't happen). I really appreciated how the director elaborated this idea into the movie in such a successful manner, and don't think that it have been studied this way by anyone before.

West Beirut - بيروت الغربية

Trailer for West Beirut

Released in 1998, this film was a hit in Lebanon. This was one of the very first films to be produced after the 1975-1990 civil war. Ziad Doueiri the director managed with success to present a movie with great style. You might think that there is some Quentin Tarantino's style, you should not be surprised since Ziad Doueiri was first assistant camera for Pulp Fiction. But he sure made his own style.
The movie was presented during the Directors Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival 1998 and got some award there. The film got as well the International Critics' Award in Toronto International Film Festival 1998 apart other awards. This alone wont prove that this film is great. All you should do is to watch it yourself and see what I mean.
I simply loved the film, the storyline was great : Teens life during the war. They don't care about religion, and the way they see solution to the problems might be the right solution ... The way he used humor, although the theme was war, touched me: In fact this way the film was showing how Lebanese overcome problems using humor. I loved all actors performance: the beatiful Rola Al Amin (May), Mohamad Chamas (Omar) and all the rest. But I appreciated the most Carmen Lebbos who shows great acting skills in all means. I only question Rami Doueiri's acting (the brother of the director), he wasn't able to make me feel that he's not acting, it wasn't that bad but I felt something was wrong, but I'm not sure about that neither, maybe the director wanted to give this teenager this kind of character. Even though the overall result was more than satisfying. This film is a must see movie for all lebanese.