Les petites guerres

Taking place in 1975, the year of the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon, "Petites guerres" explores the situation from the point of view of the young generation. It seems that the old Lebanon is dead and the new Lebanon is driven to chaos by a bunch of young people who will gradually lose their ideologies. Two solutions remain: leave the country (the aeroport is an important place in the lebanese films about war) or be part of the violence. This is what happens to Talal, Souraya and Nabil. Nabil will even take a picture of himself claiming that he is dead and a martyr of war to protect himself from real death in a country where everyone is finally in a manner or another dead. Note the first scene in which Souraya (who is Bagdadi's wife in life) carries the portrait of Fouad who died recently. The picture is in fact Bagdadi's own portrait. This scene becomes very emotional if we place it in 1993, the year in which Bagdadi accidently died. The scene becomes a real document.

This is indisputably a film of interest. Indeed Maroun Bagdadi courageously undertakes to shoot this sincere movie in the middle of the bloody civil war that rages out in his motherland, Lebanon. And his stance is all the more commendable as it is far from an easy one : isn't his approach to criticize and denounce those among his compatriots who have started this horrible conflict out of sheer self-interest and cynicism ? The trouble is that "Petites Guerres" has not bloomed into a Lebanese "I accuse" but has resulted in a boring,muddled ghost of a movie. I tried very hard to understand, held on bravely but I must confess that I figured out neither the motivations nor the behaviors of the ectoplasm's characters. It may simply be because I am French and I don't have all the clues or isn't it because Bagdadi aimed too complacently at being arty ? Whatever the case may be, I didn't like the confused story, the opaque characters and the brooding actors. And I just hate having to admit it.is