I have watched three Lebanese films this Summer, all worth mentioning.

Caramel

Caramel is a well-made film by Nadine Labaki (it was Lebanon’s official Oscar submission for best film in 2007) who directs, co-writes and stars, that takes us into the world of women in Lebanon. It’s predominantly set in a beauty salon (caramel is the name given to the waxing mix in Beirut) and features a cross section of Beiruti female society: moslem, christian, old, young, lesbian, adulterous, marrying, senile, menopausing, weaving it all together in a touchingly humanistic narrative.
Labaki admirably wanders through the film’s many characters’ troubled lives often without resolving their concerns. Beiruti politics make a few discrete interjections but the focus remains on the frustrated characters who are all portrayed with loving sensitivity (the cast of mainly non-actors is impressive throughout, more son than Nadine in fact). There is a genuine feeling of sorority created that the viewer connects with.

Although in essence a chick-flick, it rises above the standard genre-movie (which is dispatched well enough) as a delicately portrayed picture of the minor, universally resonant details of life as women who happen to live in Beirut. An impressive if humble debut by Labaki who is probably one to watch.

West Beirut

West Beyrouth (Beyrouth Al Gharbiyya) (West Beirut) by Ziad Doueiri (who was cameraman on Quentin Tarantino films) is set in a bubbling pre-civil war mid-1970s Beirut and is centered around Tarek, a teenage high-school student and only son of loving parents (Carmen Lebbos and Joseph Bou Nassar). Tarek is played by the director’s younger brother, the character is going through that self-centered, annoying pubescent phase of growing up and unfortunately Rami Doueiri only really captures the annoying part of the role well.
As we see the beginnings of the civil war unfold around the characters it becomes increasingly difficult to feel empathy towards the care-free star and his cohort of still innocent friends as they dot around an increasingly divided and dangerous city in attempts to develop super8 footage of a sexy aunt and to find the legendary brothel of Umm Walid dodging bullets, checkpoints and demonstrations with the careless confidence only possible in early youth. The casting of Tarek is perhaps the movie’s only let-down.
It is shot beautifully (Beirut and the parents especially) in saturated, green-hued tones reminiscent of a slightly-toned down Youssef Nabil photograph.
Indeed the relationship between the parents is the film’s emotional heart and the scenes of them fighting and making up amidst the confusion of how to react to the chaos around them are the most affecting.
Again a very impressive debut and Doueiri is definitely one to keep an eye on.


A Perfect Day (Youm Aakhar)

A Perfect Day was the movie I had heard least about and quite frankly only picked up because I saw that Soap Kills and Scrambled Eggs had worked on the soundtrack.
And wow, I am so thankful. This film completely blew me away. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Both university professors in Beirut) have instantly become important artists for me.
We tail Malek (Ziad Saad) around Beirut for a couple of days as he navigates his city, deals with and avoids as best he can his over-demanding mother, chases his ex-girlfriend Zeina (Alexandra Kahwagi) who does her best to avoid Malek whilst officially filing legal claims to recognize that his father who has been misisng for 15 years is dead, all the while desperately fighting off a sleep disorder problem which causes him to fall asleep if he’s idle for more than a few minutes (even at a dragging red-light in Beiruti traffic).
None of that really matters though. Hadjithomas and Joreige (whose own uncle is one of the 17,000 reported missing during the war in Lebanon) masterfully create a slightly suffocated, latent tone of over-sexed, guilt-infected, hedonistic, nihilistic, vacuous spirit that is youth in Beirut. The inertia is stifling and at once beguiling. Beirut is captured in all its wonder and wants. Ziad Saad Julia Kassar who plays the mother are superb. The soundtrack, the reason I discovered the film, is one with the visuals and mood, which in this exemplary example of non-narrative, emotional film-making is paramount.
A perfect film.

Not unexpectedly (Beirut has been a vital cultural force in the Middle East for a long time), these Lebanese films indicate that Lebanon has much to offer the Middle Eastern film ouvre, I will definitely be spending more time and money at the airport Virgin on my next trip.
All the filmmakers share an evident and pronounced love for their city (and Beirut, so very lovable, is particularly photogenic, cinematic and receptive in this regard).
The films also share a palpable sense of lament.

I wonder what how they fared commercially (the first two as A Perfect Day is a decidedly non-commercial film).

Figures I have been able to find indicate Caramel has grossed US$13,209,000 globally (as of 07.31.08) having cost US$1.6 million. Here’s a hint of where the success came from a la Wikipedia:

In France, Caramel topped number 7 position in the box office for 3 weeks following its release. It was ranked in the 9th position in the United Kingdom the week it was released. As of Lebanon, the film gained the first place in the box office for more than a month.
It grossed US$667,000 in Lebanon alone which is impressive and indicative of the country’s willingness to get behind its cultural output.

West Beyrouth apparently cost around US$800,000 and managed US box office figures of US$343,000.

Nadine Labaki in Caramel

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