Beyond the Cedars : Lebanese Celluloid

By: Edwin N

There has never really been a Lebanese Industry preoccupied with Cinema around here.
Our films are mostly financed,produced and developped thanks to foreign help, mostly European.The only Lebanese film that actually had a release in the US is Caramel, which generated 2M$, which is considered to be huge considering it’s budget. The success of Caramel, which has also been seen by nore than 760 000 French spectators, pushed producers to seek for more Lebanese talent.
The average number of films made in Lebanon counting from 2006 is now 12, excluding local comedies and follow-ups to soap operas that are financed and distributed by Egyptians.
Lebanese cinema has first been heared of with the 1998 film “West Beirut” , which was later released on DVD by Front Row with the etiquette “Cult Classic”. It was a huge hit too.
Most Lebanese films, like West Beirut, talk about the Civil War our country had to face beginning from 1975 and killing more than 300 000 civilians.Filmmakers like Ziad Doueiri, Joseph Fares, Danielle Arbid, Nadine Labaki or Khalil Joreig and Joanna Hadjithomas and especially Maroun Bagdadi, considered by many like our national porte-parole in cinema.Also, Ghassan Sahlab,Assad Fouladkar,Randa Chahal Sabag,Philippe Araktangi and Michel Kammoun.
My principal interest is Danielle Arbid, she’s a blend of Antonioni and Breillat: She’s probably the only Lebanese filmmaker to have ever represented realistic sexuality, Breillat-style, and the only one that has never fallen into clichés, something every filmmakers falls into.
Her main concerns are incommunicability, sexuality(sexual discoveries, identification, domination of sex in a relationship) and the difficulty of loving/living, which reminds a lot of Antonioni, Sang-soo or Bilge Ceylan.
Take a look at this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inFS5QHuoNo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4TDVNczfo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnzs4YERRjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rayLsUwioRg

Youssef Chahine films that were included on this list have partly been filmed in Lebanon, to justify their presence. Ditto to Schlondorff’s The Circle of Deceit, Spy games, Syriana and Assayas’ Carlos