Winner of 1998 Prix François Chalais at Cannes film festival and recognised at many other international festivals, this is a factual take on the war in Lebanon serenading as a brilliant movie.
Adolescence is a period of life difficult to capture on screen. It either ends up being too musical and makes no sense or hits too hard to be called art in any way or form. The movies which have captured this period of life naturally and creatively have attained cult status. Though this movie goes on to talk a lot about the conflict in middle east from Lebanon’s perspective, I would like to think that the teenager’s point of view is the differentiator.
The 1975 war in Lebanon starts off like any other in the past and everyone thinks that things would get back to normal in few weeks or months. Three teenagers who suddenly...
Adolescence is a period of life difficult to capture on screen. It either ends up being too musical and makes no sense or hits too hard to be called art in any way or form. The movies which have captured this period of life naturally and creatively have attained cult status. Though this movie goes on to talk a lot about the conflict in middle east from Lebanon’s perspective, I would like to think that the teenager’s point of view is the differentiator.
The 1975 war in Lebanon starts off like any other in the past and everyone thinks that things would get back to normal in few weeks or months. Three teenagers who suddenly...
- 8/9/2019
- by Arun Krishnan
- AsianMoviePulse
Teenagers will be teenagers, even in a war-torn city, as this debut feature by Ziad Doueiri entertainingly and evocatively demonstrates. A rambling, episodic portrait of three friends spending their adolescence in divided Beirut from 1975-83, the film manages to blend charm and humor into its unlikely setting.
The writer-director, who has worked as a cameraman on many Quentin Tarantino productions, spent his formative years in Lebanon, and his film resonates with insight, authenticity and a surprising degree of humor.
What it doesn't have is much of a plot. The film concerns the adventures and relationships among Tarek (Rami Doueiri, the director's brother), his best friend Omar (Mohamad Chamas) and the girl he idolizes, May Rola Al Amin). Along with the usual travails of teenhood, the three young people must cope with a city divided by a civil war pitting Muslims against Christians. Although Tarek and Omar are Muslim, and May is Christian, their friendship is never called into question.
Dodging bombs and masked militiamen wielding machine guns, they engage in such normal activities as smoking and biking throughout the embattled city and making movies with an 8mm camera. Tarek even manages to stumble upon the local brothel, the neutrality of which is indicated by the women's underwear posted on the balcony. Tarek's parents, meanwhile, struggle with the decision of whether to leave their increasingly dangerous homeland.
Some of "West Beirut" suffers from an aimlessness and preoccupation with minutia, and many scenes -- such as a series of arguments between Tarek's family and the loud, vulgar woman who lives below them -- are allowed to drag on to irritating effect. But the film also provides a textured portrait of complicated characters coping with an increasingly surreal existence, and Doueiri has directed the film with uncommon assurance.
WEST BEIRUT
Cowboy Booking International
Director-screenplay:Ziad Doueiri
Producers:Rachid Bouchareb, Jean Brehat
Cinematographer:Ricardo Jacques Gale
Editor:Dominique Marcombe
Music:Stewart Copeland
Production designer:Hamze Nasrallah
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tarek:Rami Doueiri
Omar:Mohamad Chamas
May:Rola Al Amin
Hala:Carmen Lebbos
Riad:Joseph Bou Nassar
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The writer-director, who has worked as a cameraman on many Quentin Tarantino productions, spent his formative years in Lebanon, and his film resonates with insight, authenticity and a surprising degree of humor.
What it doesn't have is much of a plot. The film concerns the adventures and relationships among Tarek (Rami Doueiri, the director's brother), his best friend Omar (Mohamad Chamas) and the girl he idolizes, May Rola Al Amin). Along with the usual travails of teenhood, the three young people must cope with a city divided by a civil war pitting Muslims against Christians. Although Tarek and Omar are Muslim, and May is Christian, their friendship is never called into question.
Dodging bombs and masked militiamen wielding machine guns, they engage in such normal activities as smoking and biking throughout the embattled city and making movies with an 8mm camera. Tarek even manages to stumble upon the local brothel, the neutrality of which is indicated by the women's underwear posted on the balcony. Tarek's parents, meanwhile, struggle with the decision of whether to leave their increasingly dangerous homeland.
Some of "West Beirut" suffers from an aimlessness and preoccupation with minutia, and many scenes -- such as a series of arguments between Tarek's family and the loud, vulgar woman who lives below them -- are allowed to drag on to irritating effect. But the film also provides a textured portrait of complicated characters coping with an increasingly surreal existence, and Doueiri has directed the film with uncommon assurance.
WEST BEIRUT
Cowboy Booking International
Director-screenplay:Ziad Doueiri
Producers:Rachid Bouchareb, Jean Brehat
Cinematographer:Ricardo Jacques Gale
Editor:Dominique Marcombe
Music:Stewart Copeland
Production designer:Hamze Nasrallah
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tarek:Rami Doueiri
Omar:Mohamad Chamas
May:Rola Al Amin
Hala:Carmen Lebbos
Riad:Joseph Bou Nassar
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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