Sous les bombes (2007) Reviews

• Shooting in the shadow of war

  Chris Knipp2008-05-02

  Director Aractingi shot this film in the immediate wake of the systematic 34-day Israeli bombing of Lebanon in summer 2006, which left much of the country devastated, especially the South. He uses his own footage of the bombing itself, which shows whole neighborhoods being decimated, and then shoots among the rubble to tell the story of Zaina (Nada Abou Farhat), a divorced mother who comes from Dubai, where she was living with her architect husband, to find Karim, her six-year-old son, who was trapped by the bombing in Kherbet Salam, a Shia Muslim village in southern Lebanon. Zaina left Karim there with her sister, ironically, to "protect" him from the stress of her divorce. The only taxi driver who'll make the dangerous trip is Tony (George Khabbaz), a Christian who turns out to be from the South himself. Aractingi got the idea of shooting in war devastation with an improvised plot in 1989 as Lebanon's civil war of that time wound down, but fear prevented him from proceeding. Instead he shot 40 documentaries and one feature that used improvisation (the 2005 Bosta) and also starred Nada Abou Farhat. As he got to work with his cast and crew for Under the Bombs, beginning shooting during the bombing and continuing during the ceasefire, he made the decision not to deal with the war so much as its impact on innocent victims, which Zaina and Karim obviously are. And many of the people and their sufferings are authentic and real-time. When Tony and Zaina reach Kherbet Salam the building her sister lived in is completely destroyed. A young woman comes up and tells her Maha, her sister, is a martyr now. Zaina and Tony go to witness the disinterring of those who died to be reburied in "martyrs' graves," hoping to find the body of Maha (they do not). Aractingi films the actual funerals--not an easy task. People say Karim was taken up by foreign journalists and went away with them, and this leads Tony and Zaina further south, just a few kilometers from the Israeli border, where they stop over with Tony's Christian family. It emerges that they were collaborators during the long Israeli occupation of south Lebanon and one brother is among those who fled to live in Israel in the aftermath of that time. The confrontation between Tony and his relatives over this collaboration is the fruit of discussions among villagers which Aractingi and his co-writer, Michel Léviant, condensed into a script. This is one example of how the actual fed into the fictional in the day-to-day shooting. The emotions are powerful and the backgrounds are horrifying in the film. Nothing quite equals the sense of identification when Zaina looks at a whole street where her sister lived and finds only ruins after the systematic bombing destruction. Less successful at times are the interactions between Zaina and Tony, who flirts, comforts, and acts out a surprisingly graphic sex scene with a room clerk at a hotel they stop at on the way. Khabbaz and Abou Farhat are good, but some cutting might have helped eliminate distracting elements. The car's breaking down just before the couple gets to the monastery where Karim is rumored to be seems a rather obvious suspense device too. The film is neutral as it can be, perhaps to a fault. One wonders why Hezbollah is barely even mentioned, since it is the other party in the warfare, and was the prime provider of aid to the victims in the bombing's immediate aftermath. Though the collaborating family members refer to being "forced to work for the Devil," meaning Israel, the focus is on the suffering rather than its source. Aractingi's film has flaws, but its boldness in bringing to the screen the 2006 bombing of Lebanon and the civilian suffering it caused can't be faulted. The San Francisco International Film Festival 2008 provided the West Coast premiere of this film, which was scheduled to open less than two weeks later, on May 12, in Paris. This was nominated for the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and received the EIUC Award at Venice.

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• Very Good!

  laminee2009-01-15

  This is a really good film. And due to the fact that it was shot during the actual crisis gives it a documentary feel. Complimented with that is the superb acting of the lead characters. It's like real life unfolding on screen - the rampant destruction, needless pains & senseless atrocities of the war. The rustic music also suits the storyline perfectly. A couple sequences though didn't quite fit into the flow of the story: - the sex scene seemed unnecessary and the breaking down of the car at the very end seemed like a little forced upon melodrama. Would recommend this movie to anyone who is in a mood to find out how the Middle East politico-religious crisis affects a common citizen.

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• A film all Americans should see

  firemanban-12008-01-19

  We were fortunate enough to see this film at the Sundace Film Festival, and I have rarely seen a more accomplished effort at portraying one of the worst atrocities of the past decade. Director Philippe Aractingi's ability to bring two feature actors into Lebanon on the tenth of thirty-three days of brutal Israeli bombing is nothing short of magnificent. Before seeing the film, I thought it may be a better case study of the war-torn environment left by the indescriminate bombing of civilian areas by the Israeli Army, with some actors thrown in at the last minute in a patchwork attempt to create a feature film. I was painfully wrong. This film is a compelling character drama told through the eyes of real people experiencing the worst kind of hell on earth. With unbelievable footage of the actors in the middle of the ongoing conflict, international media coverage, and the U.N. relief mission, Aractingi deftly (and powerfully) combines his fictional characters will real life survivors to tell the story of a mother trying to find her son in the ruins of war-torn Lebanon. The main character's decision to hire the initially lecherous, but ultimately compassionate and sympathetic taxi driver Tony to take her on her journey results in a touching tale of humanity and the place of individuals in a world beyond they're control. When asked about his filming techniques in the Q&A after the movie, Aractingi expressed his desire for the movie to be seen for the message it carries, as it should be.

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• Pro-People - Great Film

  movieoooo2008-01-23

  Not sure why this film isn't rated higher. Its really good. The other review does a good job explaining why its good. (an amazing achievement, part documentary, part drama, great acting, great story, great cinematography) I will add, it is not pro-hezbollah, its not pro-Israel, its anti-war. However it is told from the perspective of a Lebanese woman, so if you are really pro-Israel and pro-war and pro-killing people, you will probably not like it. Really depressing. So if you want feel-good and redemption, don't go see it. It has a great love story too. Its complicated and not trite at all. This is a unique touching film

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• Worth watching ... interesting take on this war

  Genevieve_X2009-01-23

  I came across this on cable television in Australia, perhaps not so ironically at the same time that Israel was bombing Hamas in Palestine in January 2009. Possibly a deliberate programming choice - perhaps not. This is an interesting film. Without knowing anything about its production, it is apparent that some of the footage is real, and many of the cast are actual civilians affected during the Israeli-Hezbollah/Lebanon war of 2006. What is central to the film is the developing relationship between Zeina, a woman looking for her son, and Tony, a taxi driver with a colourful past. I must admit I did particularly like that the two main characters are not perfect, and indeed their flaws further serve to foster a sense of identification with them. They are not your usual Hollywood war victims. Zeina is a woman who has sent her young son to the South of Lebanon to escape a messy divorce and supposedly philandering husband. Tony the taxi driver is someone trying to make a spare dollar by selling black market medication and there are several references to a brother with a criminal history in Israel. What I most enjoyed about "under the bombs" was the raw reality of the story and the lack of morality and bias. The victims of all sides of the war are clearly shown and no one is attached to any particular side. Nada Abou Farhat is a naturally beautiful central actor, and I mean "naturally" in that she doesn't present some kind of blow-dried version of war. She is a powerful actor being able to portray the anguish of a mother seeking a lost child. Similarly Georges Khabbaz is a real character - not your sexy leading man - in fact he is a relatively average looking man, not unattractive, but definitely not with stereotyped leading man good looks. He clearly passes as a realistic representation of a Lebanese taxi driver and is quite likable. He really does look the part! Also, the support cast are clearly locals, and I got the sense that many of the stories told were real. The child actors are particularly good. The relationship between Tony and Zeina is interesting, but with some flaws. It is clear that Zeina is a beautiful and quite sexy woman, wearing a figure hugging dress that seems somewhat out of type for the south of Lebanon, but this is okay because it further creates Zeina as a individual ... obviously a woman from the South of Lebanon who has married a 'man of the world' and left her traditional life behind. I wonder whether Tony falls a little into a stereotype of the Arabic male (I would be interested in Arabic men's opinion on this), in that whilst he feels for Zeina's predicament, he sees her as a sexual being. It is often the case that people form intense relationships in traumatic situations, but it is a wonder whether Tony's feelings are totally realistic. In one scene, he is lamenting that Zeina is "a woman looking for her son but who won't acknowledge me!" (paraphasing) when a journalist approaches him for a fare while Zeina is looking for her son. I wondered whether this was a little unrealistic. Would an Arabic man let out emotions like these after knowing a woman for two days? Maybe ... but I wondered whether the romantic relationship was paying lip service to traditional cinematic storytelling. I actually feel the film would've benefited more from this romantic tension being far more 'beneath the surface'. What I did really love about this film was its simplicity. It is a simple demonstration of the suffering of people in war. Zeina's grief, when she finds her sister is dead, is palpable and intense to watch. Similarly, the end of the film is bitter and lends itself towards the reality of war. I would recommend this film as a good example of cinema verite and an important contribution to showing the victims of war in a way that doesn't use the usual soft focus, blow dried Hollywood stereotype. Nice work! Gen_x

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