West
Beirut, written and directed by Ziad Doueiri, tells
the story of the disintegration of Lebanon from April 13,
1975, through the eyes of high school students who bridged
the gap between the Christian and Moslem communities and the
parents of one of the students, a Christian mother and a Moslem
father. When the film begins, Tarek sings the Lebanese national
anthem to the chagrin of his schoolteacher, who has all students
at attention, singing the Marsellaise. It seems that Tarek
(played by the director's brother Rami) and his Moslem friend
Omar (played by Mohamad Chamas) commute from their apartments
in West Beirut, where a Christian girl May (played by Rola
Al Amin) also lives (but survives only by later hiding her
cross pendant as the civil war heats up), to attend a French
school in East Beirut. The teacher goes on to berate Tarek,
tells him to leave class when he deliberately misspells "Monsieur,"
and ethnocentrically tells the class that France gave Lebanon
its civilization. However, nothing seems to bother always-smiling
Tarek, who observes the resurgence of the civil war from the
second floor of the school, after which school is shut down.
Thereafter, Tarek has words with a foul-mouthed motorist,
observes Christians firebombing a demonstration of Moslems,
drops a basin of water onto a crazed woman in the neighborhood
to stop her verbal rage, helps his uncle when he is attacked
by a greedy Moslem so-called protector of his neighborhood,
and even visits a brothel located in the neutral zone between
the two parts of the city. (The film contains occasional scenes
of some of the major violent outbreaks during a civil war
that continued until the early 1990s.) The tagline of the
film is "Growing up is only half the battle." Meanwhile, his
father Riad (played by Joseph Bou Nassar) calms his mother
Hala (played by Carmen Lebbos) , who wants to leave Lebanon,
by telling her that whatever humiliation she is now suffering
would be multiplied manyfold if the family were to become
refugees in Western Europe or the United States. The father
eloquently reminds her that Lebanon has had internal conflicts
many times before but is part of a venerable civilization,
one that advanced the arts and science long before Europe,
and can only be preserved by remaining. MH
I
want to comment on this film
