O Insulto

I imagine "The Insult" will inspire strong feelings among certain viewers who have a close connection to the topic, and especially those from parts of the world that feel strongly one way or another about the Palestinian conflict. Most of the rest of us will probably learn a little something about the cultural and religious conflict between Lebanese Christians and Palestinians, something Americans (where I'm from) certainly don't ever learn much about unless we actively seek it out.

I very much enjoyed "The Insult" and I appreciated its attempts to be objective about a topic that most people who are directly affected by it can't be. People don't generally like to hear that there is often not a right or wrong side to a given issue but rather a vast middle area of gray, especially not in our current world climate where there's a "with us or against us" mentality about most things. But while I appreciated the film's approach, I couldn't help but feel it had a little bit of an after school special quality about it, a kind of preachy "can't we all just get along" tone that I don't necessarily disagree with but which feels a bit naive and facile in our extremely complicated times.

A worthy effort and one that has a lot to recommend it. It just didn't hit it out of the ball park.

Grade: A-

What a tour-de-force! What a triumph! What a masterpiece! I haven't seen such a powerful movie in years. This is the kind of movie you come across so very rarely, that shakes you to your very core, makes the art of cinema worthwhile and reminds you why you fell in love with the motion picture in the first place.

Greetings again from the darkness. When a film opens with a statement that 'the views expressed are those of the authors and director, and not of the government of Lebanon', one quickly understands the difference in artistic freedom in that country versus what occurs in the United States, where cartoons and memes regularly poke fun at this country's President. Director Ziad Doueri and his co-writer Joelle Touma present an intense story of human nature that might happen anywhere, but since the leads are a Lebanese Christian and a Palestine refugee, that opening statement is warranted.

One morning, a seemingly innocuous exchange between Tony (Adel Karam) and Yasser (Kamel El-Basha) takes place. While watering flowers on his balcony, the overflow sprays Yasser on the street below. Yasser, a city contractor, orders his team to fix the drainage issue, and Tony reacts violently - leading to Yasser delivering the titular insult. From there, all heck breaks loose. Apologies are requested and never delivered. Appeals to rational reconsideration are made. Tony's pregnant wife (an excellent Rita Hayek) pleads with him to let it go. Yasser's boss threatens him with termination. Still, two stubborn and prideful men refuse to give in.

The subsequent courtroom drama feature other side stories, not the least of which is the relationship between the two opposing attorneys (Diamond Bou Abboud and Camile Salaheh), one a rising legal star and the other a veteran attempting to make up for a past failure. Emotions run high as two too-proud men turn what was little more than a playground standoff into a national incident being fought in the legal system and the media. Tony is a hot-head who somehow thinks an apology from Yasser is actually an apology for how Palestinians "messed up this country". Yasser's stoic nature barely shrouds his bitterness at the world since the Lebanon Civil War. History and childhood roots play a role, but mostly it's human nature that is at the core of this escalation.

Though the title is not plural, there are multiple insults slung throughout the film, each reminding us of the power of words and the futility of the "sticks and stones" phrase. Our own prejudices and preconceptions alter our views and reactions, often preventing us from standing in the other fellow's shoes. Again, this situation could have played out in most any neighborhood on the globe, but this particular locale shows various ethnic and religious groups are still grappling with what it means to live together - despite the years of wars and unrest. We don't see a great deal of Middle Eastern cinema, but three days after I watched this film, it became the first ever movie from Lebanon to receive an Oscar nomination (Best Foreign Language Film) ... proving yet again that the language of cinema is universal.

The poster for The Insult, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, doesn't quite do the product justice. It makes the film look like a simple tragic drama; in fact The Insult builds on its intriguing premise of a simple insult escalating, and balances feelings of remorse, tensions and even comedy and absurdity in a brisk tone and style. A film where the prosecutor and defense are father and daughter, and the shock reveal, is a film that isn't totally taking itself seriously. But it reflects on very serious wounds in the past and the lack of reconciliation after, a followup to a tragic story previously depicted in an earlier Oscar nominee Incendies. But Incendies was Canadian and The Insult is actually Lebanese, the first Lebanese film to be nominated, and it speaks in a national voice.

With only some minor violence, The Insult's story largely escalates in the courtroom, and anyone interested in courtroom films will find this great material. I had to stop myself from saying "courtroom drama," because again, it's not only that. The absurdities provoke laughs, the drama provokes thought, and The Insult has something for everybody, even people who know little about Lebanon (The film itself explains much of the gaps in knowledge for the viewer).

I live and work in Lebanon for already a decade, so I'm well accustomed to local ways and habits, frequently "justified" through common phrases of the following kind: "This is Lebanon... Only in Lebanon... Welcome to Lebanon!"

In my ongoing increased attendance to movie theatres, and exposure to current repertoire, "The Insult" (original title "L'insulte", literal English translation of Arabic title "Case No. 23") (2017), was my last choice. Now that I've seen it, I realized that it should've been the first! Namely, while other feature movies from the contemporary repertoire, even those allegedly inspired by true events, are mostly telling excessively exaggerated, hard-to-believe stories, revolving around almost out-of-this-world heroes, thus flooding the A-movie market with commercial exploitism, otherwise exemplified in low-budget films, "The Insult", based on deeply insightful screenplay written by Ziad Doueiry and Joëlle Touma, and compassionately directed by the former, is richly soaked into (Lebanese) reality.

What starts as an every-day incident (cited in the title) in an average Beirut neighbourhood, within minutes grows into a bigger conflict between two ostensibly unreasonably stubborn personalities, and spirals out of proportion to a high-profile courtroom drama and a matter of an almost utmost national interest.

What happens here is not unknown (m)anywhere else in the World. It's only that in Lebanon it has greater gravity and impact due to well-advertised, for more than half a century closely monitored, media covered multitude of regional and local political problems, ever so easily reviving and fuelling age-old animosities based on ethnic, religious and sectarian antagonisms, as well as rivalries between the autochthonous communities and migrants--whether economic immigrants, or internally and externally displaced refugees--ergo plethora of political, economic and humanitarian challenges.

Actors did a good job, and although sometimes way to eloquent and theatrical, especially, not unexpectedly, lawyers in the courtroom scenes, at least they provide ample historical background which could explain but not justify all the buildup subsequent to otherwise an ordinary incident. However, silences and exchanged glances between conflicting protagonists, Toni, a Lebanese Christian (Adel Karam), and Yasser, a Palestinian refugee (Kamel El Basha), often speak even more than words!

The very ending is a bit vague, but so is the broader context, involving multifaceted interests, creating tensions, eternal conflicts whatsoever, sadly, with no solution in sight, neither at present, nor in the foreseeable future?

As it was mentioned by the end of the movie nobody has monopoly for suffering. I would like to add for happiness, neither, which makes it even harder to accept endlessly ongoing bitter realities people of (not only) Lebanon have to live.

All in all, "The Insult" is a fine courtroom drama, which keeps you at the edge of the seat. It is an almost perfect Lebanese movie, fairly cut even for international audience, well worth seeing.