33 Days - ٣٣ يوم

a Still from 33 days

22 days have passed and the massacres in Gaza are still being committed in ways no human can understand. A mirroring event, 2 years earlier, Lebanon was pounded continuously, brutally, and in the most cruel ways, for 33 days. Mai Masri documented this period of Lebanon history. As in any similar atrocities, war is fought in more than one front, director Masri, in her documentary, focuses her camera on different fronts on how any ordinary Lebanese was living, keeping distance from direct fire line. Without any scripted narration, the documentary reveals itself as a slideshow of events lived by the people trapped in the conflict. One camera follows the work by a TV news producer and her fight to bring to report the war to citizens and being forced away from her home during all the 33 days period. Another persepective direct our attention to a theater director who had done a marvelous job in entertaining displaced kids. A third front emphasize the efforts done by the civilian community in Lebanon to bring relief aids to refugees. Noting that all those storylines are being shown in parallel, we end up concluding that the efforts described in the documentary are ingredients to a successful resistance movement which led to a merited victory.
For Lebanese, this award winning masterpiece will surely unveil some emotions, maybe make a tear or two drop, but will get us firmly attached to our dignity, our pride, our land, and unity. It should be aired as well on most TV stations, western or local to give the side of wars aside what the news reports bring.
Mai Masri is a Palestinian director, I am not sure whether she can produce a similar documentary about the ongoing war in Gaza without being present there. But the tragic events should be documented in the same way it have been done during the war in Lebanon, even if conditions are much more difficult.

Related posts: Under the bombs, Slingshot Hip hop, Salt of this sea

SlingShot Hip Hop - هيب هوب المقلاع

In the light of the tragic events that are shredding Gaza (which remind me to the latest infamous war against Lebanon in 2006 with ironically very similar circumstances), this post will be dedicated to the new award-winning documentary by Jackie Salloum: Slingshot Hip Hop.

Slingshot Hip Hop Trailer

Despite all the borders, walls, checkpoints, and the apartheid regime, this feature reveals the unity of the Palestinian population wherever they are. The movie is surprisingly amusing for a documentary, it reveals youth life and the continuing will to overturn the outcomes of the oppression imposed on occupied people. It highlights suavely different talents mainly in Hip Hop, that are blooming against the occupation and the indignity. The music they compose is enjoyable by youth, but also by elder people as some scenes indicates. That kind of culture is one way towards breaking the chain that imprisons bodies, but not minds of occupied people.
To resume, director Jackie Salloum redefines, and successfully corrects the image of the Arabs with respect to the vilification that floods screens of every westerner.
No one can ignore the big talent of Salloum, you can easily enjoy her studies about the western media vs. Arabian media by playing the videos below side by side; the first one emphasize the dehumanization of Arabs in the West medias, the other shows Arabs from their own eyes (mainly a successful montage from different Lebanese and Egyptian films).

Planet of the Arabs (up left), and Arabs a Go-go (lower right) by Jackie Salloum

I can only hope such movie reach a wide audience not only in the middle-east, but especially in Europe and USA.
Note that this is not the first post on a Palestinian movie, I would remind of another one discussing the great feature Salt of This Sea.

Une Chanson dans la tête - ميلودراما حبيبي

Trailer for Melodrama Habibi

Hani Tamba released this long fiction, his first one in France, a pity that it wasn't released earlier in Lebanon this crowded summer. My beliefs is that it would have compete well with the other American movies. In France, it might not be considered as general public movie, but the first days it was a hit I suppose. The movie made a great bi-lingual movie, although some lines may not seem as natural for Lebanese (an oracle which speaks almost exclusively in French!) which reveals the Lebanese openness to other cultures. Behind the story, the most highlighted theme that we may extract is the focus on the memory, and how weak are humans relying on it. This theme can be touched in the director's award winning short After Shave where we can find other common subjects. One of these, is his choice of the music composer, Khaled Mouzanar whose talent marked his wife's movie as well. Regarding the cast, I was excited with Julia Kassar's presence, it's a shame that her role was so short, even though her talent was shining in the little space she was given.
Even though the ending was a bit pessimistic for Lebanon future, in my opinion, this Tamba's first feature was a success, only missing its release in Lebanon.

In Memoriam ...

This week witnessed a big loss for the Lebanese artistic community. A great talent that contributed in defining lines of Arabic and Lebanese films would not be forgotten any time soon. Her marks will remain shining in the history of our culture.

Her best known works include "The Kite" which was honored with the silver Lion award in the Venice film festival.

Randa Chahal, Rest In Peace...

I want to see - بدّي شوف

"I want to see" Trailer

It's not clear in what category to put this movie, It's not a short since its duration passed an hour, not a fiction neither since what we see is a real story, and not a documentary (is it?) where every thing is programmed. You might think it's a media report about a journey visit of the French actress Catherine Deneuve to a disaster zone (few months after the disaster). The camera was almost exclusively pointed at Mrs Deneuve, and sometimes at Rabih Mroueh. During this one day journey, Catherine visited the southern suburbs for a short period of time, then continues to Bent Jbeil, the hometown of Rabih. He showed deep emotions in his quest to find his grand mother house with all the destruction around, Catherine was only trying to find out where Rabih have gone, showing little interest of her surrounding. During the rest of the movie, Catherine appeared tired of the trip, maybe because she could not support what she wanted to see? In all the movie, she gives the impression of being passive, unless for one scene where we see her reacting when Rabih was talking about her movies! The last scene where she was showing respect and appreciation for Rabih, was a beautiful moment to see.
The movie included beautiful scenes from the south, with the plain of dancing wheat expressing high aesthetic taste, the other which focused on machines and ruins is well moving.
In short, I see this movie as an experimental piece - the directors called it a cinematographic adventure - which is not (AFAIK) aiming to reach general public, but tells a real story free from faking emotions, or alien scenes. It simply shows a beautiful work depicting reality behind stars we used to see them acting.

Interview with Rabih Mroueh

"I want to see" presentation at Cannes