It all starts so low-key. Some water leaks from Toni’s balcony onto the contractor Yasser. He says something about it and Toni curses back. An ordinary quarrel like so many, every day. But this is Beirut, and Toni and Yasser stand on different sides of a deep political, cultural and religious rift.
As a result, their personal feud quickly escalates into a national commotion. Hot-tempered Toni is a Christian, from a group that feels increasingly threatened in today’s Lebanon. Yasser is a Palestinian refugee. Both feel personally hurt by the insults the other throws at them. The two are forced to face up to their deep-rooted prejudice. Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri shot his previous film, The Attack, in Israel – and this also resulted in a furore in his homeland. This time he aims his arrows at Lebanon itself, where the old wounds of the Civil War that ended in 1990 are ignored but in fact are still painfully open.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.
Film details
Productielanden
France, Lebanon
Jaar
2017
Festivaleditie
IFFR 2018
Lengte
113'
Medium/Formaat
DCP
Taal
Arabic
Première status
None
Director
Ziad Doueiri
Producer
Jean Bréhat, Rachid Bouchareb, Julie Gayet, Nadia Turincev, Antoun Sehnaoui, Charles S. Cohen
Screenplay
Ziad Doueiri, Joëlle Touma
Cinematography
Tommaso Fiorilli
Music
Éric Neveux
Production company
3B Productions, Ezekiel Films Limited, Tessalit Productions, Rouge International
Sales / World rights holder
Indie Sales
Distributor NL / Benelux rights holder
Cinéart Netherlands
Editing
Dominique Marcombe
Production design
Hussein Baydoun
Sound design
Guilhem Donzel, Olivier Walczak, Sebastien Wera, Bruno Mercere
Principal cast
Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh, Diamand Abou Abboud, Rita Hayek, Alal El Jurdi, Christine Choueiri