A Starter Guide to Streaming Lebanese Cinema

posted on: Apr 13, 2018

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

BY: SARA ARIDI

Name a Middle Eastern country and chances are a Hollywood film has reduced it to a featureless dusty landscape, inhabited by faceless hairy men and modestly dressed women, most of them interchangeable. The latest such movie to irritate Arabs around the world (myself included) is the hostage drama “Beirut.” Set in 1982, the film stars John Hamm as an American diplomat on a rescue mission during Lebanon’s devastating civil war. In her review, Manohla Dargis writes that “the absence of Arab voices beyond those of the terrorists further flattens a movie that never fully takes satisfying shape.”

But fear not! There are plenty of films made by Lebanese filmmakers that counter such reductive visions. Many local favorites — like “West Beirut,” “Zozo” and “Little Wars” — haven’t reached the streaming world yet, but the streaming platform M Media has been building a library of Arab films old and new. (The platform offers a free one-month trial, and a subscription is $5 per month after that.) Here are some of the best you can stream right now.

If You Like Romantic Comedies

If you’re remotely familiar with Lebanese entertainment, you have probably heard of this uplifting debut feature by Nadine Labaki. Named after a wax-like concoction widely used across the Middle East for hair removal, the film stars Labaki as one of five women who work at and frequent a beauty salon in Beirut. Each woman’s woes touch on issues that aren’t often talked about in the more traditional parts of the Arab world — like infidelity, homosexuality and mental health.

The film takes place in a world devoid of war and its tensions, instead taking an emotion-driven look at everyday lives. This seemed to be a welcome change for audiences. In 2007, “Caramel” topped the box office charts in Lebanon and became the first Lebanese film to open theatrically in the United States.

If You Like Tales of Morality

Like “Caramel,” this heart-warming dramedy from 2013 makes no mention of Lebanon’s contemporary politics. Instead, the film is a social satire told through the eyes of Leba, a music instructor from a provincial Christian village where gossip thrives and privacy is a foreign concept. Leba’s young son, Ghadi, has Down syndrome and spends much of his time trying to mimic his father’s singing, provoking the ire of the intolerant townsfolk.

While open public discussions around disabilities and mental health are finally cropping up in Lebanon, the subject has long been taboo. This lighthearted feature gently denounces bigotry with humor and its spot-on portrayal of Lebanese village life.

If You Like Quirky Dramedies

Labaki’s second feature, this charming satire also revolves around a group of provocative women, but it is goofier than “Caramel” and not as surefooted in its plot. Its shortcomings end there, however. Led by Labaki, who also plays the young widow Amale, a group of Muslim and Christian women in an isolated Lebanese village scheme to keep their belligerent men from starting a sectarian war.

Unlike the women in the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata,” who end war by withholding sex, the women in this film exploit carnal desire. The film made waves in Lebanon for its unorthodox approach to a grave concept. And despite its star-studded Hollywood competitors, it took home the audience award at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.

If You Like War Dramas

War films produced years after the conflicts in question have subsided can sometimes lack a sense of immediacy. Not so with this heart-wrenching road movie. Shot during the 2006 conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah, “Under the Bombs” is a docu-fiction drama with some very real elements. The bombs exploding in the distance are not fabricated, and the cast consists mostly of nonprofessional actors who are merely reenacting their experiences. This is by no means a polished production, but it stands out because of its visceral tragedy and moving performances, which capture the realities of war the way few films have.

If You’re a Theater Buff

The play “What About Tomorrow?” had an 8-month run in Beirut in 1978. Directed by the composer and playwright Ziad Rahbani, who also stars, it has been an important cultural reference point in Lebanon ever since. At once a searing and sardonic look at the demands of city living, the production follows Zakaria and his wife Thuraya, who run a bar in the trendy Hamra neighborhood of Beirut. In an effort to keep themselves afloat, Zakaria reluctantly allows Thuraya to work as a prostitute.

For nearly 40 years, the play was accessible only in audio format for most people. But over the course of three years, M Media cleaned and pieced together the 8-millimeter footage used for this restoration, which was was originally recorded to help the actors improve their performances (and thus never intended for a theatrical release). Fans rejoiced at the result: The film shattered box-office records in Lebanon when it opened in 2016.

If You Like Dark Comedies

“Very Big Shot” starts out as an action thriller about three brothers who are trying to close up shop on their drug-dealing operation and go straight. But when a mishap during their last deal leaves them with a truck full of amphetamines, the film takes a sharp, comedic turn into social commentary.

In a plan to smuggle the drugs to Iraq, the three brothers take control of a film project by one of their indebted cocaine buyers, and the production eventually draws intense media coverage. The absurdity of the plot is a nod to the widespread corruption in Lebanon (a recent study found that Lebanon was the most corrupt country in the Arab world), and a tendency for public opinion to be easily swayed by theatrics. Some moments of “Very Big Shot” are stronger than others, but this bold comedy is a refreshing change from the depictions of love and war you’ll typically find in Lebanese cinema.

If You Like Forbidden Love Stories

Director Randa Chahal Sabbag has described this family drama as a fairy tale and a fable. Call it what you will, but one thing is for sure: It’s a conversation starter. In it, a teenager named Lamia lives in a Lebanese village near the Israeli border that was split when Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981. Her conservative family arranges for her to marry her cousin on the Israeli side, a plan Lamia could not be less enthusiastic about. On her wedding day, she crosses the border and catches the eye of a young Israeli-Arab soldier, Youssef. Intrigued by his watchful gaze, Lamia rejects her marriage and pursues the forbidden fruit.

The complexities of Israeli-Arab affairs give “The Kite” a specific political context, but its basic premise of teenage rebellion is universal. And the comical scenes of covered women on both sides of the border discussing private matters (such as Lamia’s puberty) over a megaphone relieve the drama of its sorrow.

If You Like Thrillers With a Romantic Edge

In a security-obsessed country like Lebanon, plagued by conspiracies and proxy wars, you never know what kind of sticky situation you might fall into. In “Beirut Hotel,” this daily uncertainty forms the backdrop for a passionate affair between Zoha, a voluptuous — and married — singer, and Mathieu, a Frenchman who says he works for a telecom company. But Mathieu might actually be a spy, and he is being trailed by two competing security services.

The couple have doubts about each other, and they also have Zoha’s domineering husband to contend with. Tensions build throughout the movie’s meandering plot as news of kidnappings dominate the headlines and people are threatened on the street.“Beirut Hotel” attracted international attention after it was initially banned in Lebanon because of its subplot about the 2005 assassination of the former prime minister Rafic Hariri.