Tannoura Maxi

I am in love with every single frame of this movie… Just inspiring, just leading to true reflexion… One of its kind in its artistic and esthetic's choices.. Poetry from the beginning till the end, with a new way of interpretation that no other Lebanese Director had the courage to do it this way.

From The opening scene, which begins with a bucket of water and ends with the house, we can feel an opening to an antique village, a heritage, a country, to Lebanon. This house of the past is revisited by actors that become characters; aliens that morph into the skin of those most familiar. This space becomes, throughout the film, a place of meeting; meeting with the past; meeting of the real with the imaginary.

The child during the film creates a kind of brackets. He concludes a life cycle: we return to the same space that of which we came out of, but certainly with modification, with change. The final jump the child takes sends him to new territories, towards a new discovery, a new infinity, a new virtual imaginary space, a new film. Memory reaps nothing but the harvest of interference. One throws himself into the past, tries to imagine his future, and creates a present that one overlooks relentlessly. The film that doesn't lack traveling in, makes absence to traveling back, except for two critical moments: the opening scene and the end shot. At the beginning, when the camera starts backing out from the close up of the mother, it reveals the entire scene of Childbirth, bringing all the characters close around, one next to the other, until the baby's delivery. The camera here draws the path of the newborn's journey to the outside world. The child comes out and is liberated; the camera also moves away to better simulate the situation. It is liberated from the real story and becomes the camera that will weave just as a sewing machine would, its own film.

The controversial issues that this movie talked about is so deep and true to a point it really frustrated some parts of closed societies who ask for censorship…

I give all my respect to this piece of art.

It has been so long, that I didn't felt speechless in front of a movie, specially a middle eastern one... I had the great chance to see the movie Tannoura Maxi ("Heels of War" - the English title) in Dubai International Film Festival few days ago, and I felt not just in love with every single frame of it, but it won the privilege of touching me straight into the heart... And as a first film for a new Lebanese Director I really wasn't expecting that much of maturity and richness, I wasn't expecting that I will be confronted to a brilliant film!

Dealing with the story of his own parent in that sensual and erotic way as well as exposing the shades of his country in a certain critical period was astonishing! I never expected that a Lebanese artist will have the boldness to dig into his privacy with no restraint, to broadcast his little secret with good conscience...

I cried more than once, and each time I wasn't able to explain why am I crying... It is not a drama at all, but Emotions are that much high in many scenes to a point that you feel yourself a baby in a need of the affection of your own mother... Feminine sides in me was boosted.. I felt that I should express my love more, that I should be proud of my feelings... Heels are not the ones of war, but the ones of love, passion, sensuality, resistance... The war is not between countries, religions, states... but between human feelings, between love and oppression, between freedom and traditions...

The Director gives the viewers the privilege of sharing his emotions by keeping them on the threshold of their houses... He will peek through door locks, more specifically the one belonging to his parent's room... Idols will become puppets manipulated by the hands of their own descendant.

Briefly, I was astonished with the quality and the cinematic language of this unreleased yet Lebanese Movie... I felt from the first scenes that am in front of a poetry, in front of a wonderful painting, of a mature treatment of a middle eastern story... I felt in Love with the movie without knowing why... I wanted to contemplate every shot, to analyze every move, every eye contact... I enjoyed the music to the maximum, and specially the ending song... I wanted to applaud high in the end, but same time I wanted to stop the cheers of the people in the theater to listen to the breathtaking final song...

I felt that I want to go back to Lebanon and to feel for real the familiarity of every actor, of every true and authentic situation... Yes it is a 100% authentic movie! Other than Nadine Labaki, I think Joe Bou Eid is the only Director who is dealing in a serious way with the Lebanese Cinema... So proud of having like this film out, so proud that Lebanon started showing the world that he contains great artists who need just the chance to expose and show their talent and their wonderful Potential!...

I will not stop watching this movie, (anyways it is a movie that needs to be watched minimum twice...) a movie that portrays crossing a stage, cutting the umbilical cord, a movie that speaks to everyone who is experiencing any kind of relationship, any kind of transition, to everyone who is maturing or moving on the path of discovery and revelation...

When personal parentheses open, they give time for meditation, imagination… A powerful movie that leads to a real reflection in a period where movies are just an entertainment tool for pop corn grabber...

The images that remains in your head after watching this movie gives you pleasure even more than the moment you are watching it… An aesthetic based on the slow images at times but also on careful framing and cutting related to the emotion felt by the characters or the viewers themselves.

The thrust of aesthetics and film structure sent the film in certain moments, to a meditative- contemplative level, on a journey through time in an imaginary space ... From here, the relation between memory and the unreal create themes that justify the modern treatment sometimes.

The first intention was to confront the viewer with a film about a true story reproduced by the imagination of a child narrating it in his own way. In storytelling, the genre 'tale' is revealed… and the desire to keep a sensational spell, threw me without feeling in the romantics and particularly the colorful poetry.

An unexpected avant-guard treatment for a movie done with a lot of bravery, for a First Film signed by its director...

Choosing to see Tannoura Maxi is one of the easiest choices there is to make, if you are as crazy as I am about Visual Storytelling.

Nowadays, there is so much emphasis on verbal communication in modern cinema; the audience has lost their ability to indulge in beautiful visual communication, where the story unfolds in front of your eyes rather than inside your ears.

There is much to say about the well composed film that takes a rather daring step towards projecting the essence of chemistry, and love between two people.

The film explores the undying tension, the untamed desire, and the seduction that draws from lust, in a time of war, pain, and grief.

It was quite a surprise going inside every character's persona in that personal way, where the audience feels much like a trespasser inside a person's head, hearing about their inmost flaws, wants, and needs. It elevates the movie into becoming somewhat of a private diary, unveiling itself slowly as the movie gradually comes to an end; where you finally find yourself relating towards this character rather than that, or the other rather than this; that's how personal it gets.

The music was as beautiful as the breathtaking images that resemble hand drawn memories.

The sound design was well crafted, and the era which the film took place was loyal to what it represents.

All and All, I'd say the movie sends me off to two places. One, it certainly takes me to a place of warmth, love, and struggle. Two, it takes me into the deviated mind of a curious little boy, who had the love to make some of the images inside his head for the public to see.

And my mom always wore heals too, even when going to get water from the well.

Poor story-line, poor scenario, poor performances.

The movie is full of eye-candy. Very little else, except quick-wins like the Rayovac commercial, the traditional dough-making scene, etc, obviously added in to trigger nostalgia without having any real role. Close-ups of the main characters and colorful scenic shots, despite their beauty, are excessive and quickly turn into a nuisance - a failed attempt to overshadow the lack of substance in the movie.

The love story fails to come across as genuine - as the rest of this movie.

Generally, presumptuous and a waste of time!