Lebanese cinema focuses on war; Ronaldo to appear in Lebanese film

Said Dhaher
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-07-31

A frame from the Lebanese film ‘Sous les Bombes’ (‘Under the Bombs’). (AFP/Getty Images)

Though Lebanon’s bloody civil war ended years ago, its cinema remains preoccupied with the subject. Features made in or about Lebanon, many filmed in the heat of its sectarian and territorial conflicts, tend to focus on the tragic aspects of war.

‘Under the Bombs,’ filmed in the summer of 2006 by an Anglo-Arab-French production company, features the tragic circumstances of a South Lebanese mother who arrives from Turkey to search for her son, who was staying with her brother and was killed alongside him in the bombing between Hezbollah and Israel.

“I tried to make a film that was in extreme contrast to the general run of Arab cinema,” director Philippe Aractingi explained. “‘Under the Bombs’ is a genuine war film. It is bleak and complex. It illustrates the physical and psychological impact of war.”

‘West Beirut,’ an earlier production, chronicles the love story of a young Muslim man living in the western half of the capital and a young Christian girl from East Beirut, interspersed with battle scenes and episodes showing the tactics used by the militias.

In Samir Habchi’s ‘The Tornado,’ the first Lebanese film sold to a U.S. television network, a young Lebanese man decides to return home after seeing a car bombing incident on TV. Soon afterwards, he becomes a reluctant participant in the war when he carries out a revenge execution after his friend is shot.

Looking ahead, an upcoming Iranian production will include a cameo appearance by Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo in a true story of a young Palestinian boy who dreamed of meeting the star before losing his leg in a bombing incident at Rafah camp. The 32-year-old footballer will be in Lebanon several days in September shooting scenes for the film. Ronaldo will appear in scenes in which Hamad fantasises about him.

Sources: Al-Jazeera/ LBC/

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