Sous les bombes

Under the Bombs (2007)

I can picture this being required viewing for anyone wanting a view of the kind of back and forth fighting between Israel and its many unfriendly neighbors. The devastation from superior Israeli firepower is horrifying. And you can see better the anger that ordinary Lebanese citizens--Muslim and Christian both--have toward the apparently insensitive Israelis.

The way this is unfolded is a convergence of two kinds of victims of the violence--a mother looking for her child and a taxi driver who she hires to take her around. In the searching we see all of Southern Lebanon's worst destruction--the real thing, shot on site--and we feel the frustration and hatred in all the people at the situation. We also see that it comes down to coping, as well, with a sense of resignation, that it's all out of their reach, even if the bombs reach them all too easily.

So, you'll cry and be in ruins yourself if you let yourself be absorbed. There is eventually going to be a sense that the movie plays the same chords for too long. The search keeps taking new turns, but the rubble, the anger, and sorry, the frustration, and even the relationship between the leads stays relatively the same. It's only in this last respect--a highly unlikely meeting of minds and hearts between to very different classes of people--that there is some evolution.

And the search, of course, has a kind of resolution that is sudden and a bit surprising. There are moments of movie drama along the way (the car stalls at the worst possible time, of course, and that kind of thing), but mostly it's about being transported to this very real war torn place using modern cinematography. The acting is intensely strong, and the basic story line heart wrenching.

Yes, see it, for those aspects that are overwhelming and necessary to understand as much as possible.

In our modern and enlightened age there is no such thing as a 'Non-Combatant'. Whether we like it or not, each of us is on one side or the other. UNDER THE BOMBS tells the story of a young mother who is trying to find her sister and son during the ceasefire of the 2006 Israeli/Lebanon Conflict. She is a wealthy outsider from Dubai who enlists the aid of a sympathetic local cabbie who helps her track down her missing family. The film focuses on their budding friendship against the backdrop of actual war zone footage. Many of the scenes are unscripted, and are shot as the real events unfold, and make for compelling cinema. The film drives home the message that wars are putatively fought and lost for valid reasons, but there are never any winners-only losers. A very thought provoking look at the true cost of a nation's foreign policies.

What better way to shoot the movie than amidst the rubble and destruction resulting from the the 2006 Lebanon War. How's this for realism in movies?

Zeina (Nada Abou Farhat) captures the raw emotions of grief and despair of possibly losing a young son in the war, as she races against time to locate him. This desperation moves Tony (George Khabbaz) to be more helpful to her. George Khabbaz succeeeds in showing the viewer his change of heart.

Great shots of the Lebanese countryside specially those places untouched by the air strikes.

The viewer is tempted to brush up on what provoked the war. Will this happen again to a land that has known armed conflict for so long?

Enjoyable movie. Acting is solid. Mix of real life footage it was hard to tell what was staged and what was real. Really makes you wonder why civilised human societies still insist on bombing each other to the stone ages.

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.