BOSTA

l'AUTOBUS

2005 Directed by Philippe Aractingi

Movie Musical

Nadine Labaki

Under the Bombs (2007) movie review

Under the Bombs (2007) movie review

A simple story that gently rips your heart out Just watched Under the Bombs for the first time, a 2007 Lebanese feature film directed by Philippe Aractingi and written by Aractingi and Michel Leviant. Nada Abu Farhat plays Zeina, a wealthy Lebanese Muslim mother of a young boy, Karim, from whom she has been separated during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah (started July 12, 2006 –…

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Opening of “Obsessions” by Philippe Aractingi: Timely reminders

Opening of “Obsessions” by Philippe Aractingi: Timely reminders

Philippe Aractingi’s new exhibition of photographs and videos not only provides fascinating glimpses of Beirut past and present, but also highlights the depth of his feelings for the city

A new exhibition by Philippe Aractingi tracks the changing face of Beirut over the decades, while revealing the award-winning filmmaker and photographer’s deeply personal and obsessive, 30-year love affair…

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FOR WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY, FILM MOVEMENT PLUS PRESENTS RUNGANO NYONI’S I AM NOT A WITCH

WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY IS AUGUST 19 A day dedicated to aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service, and to rally support for people affected by crises around the world.

“Wickedly smart.” –Los Angeles Times

“One of the most striking debuts of the year.” –IndieWire

“A rush of originality, energy and ambition.” –Sight & Sound

“Signals the auspicious arrival of a fierce new talent.” –Chicago Reader

In her BAFTA award-winning debut feature, Rungano Nyoni crafts a satirical feminist fairy tale set in present-day Zambia. When nine-year-old Shula is accused of witchcraft, she is exiled to a witch camp run by Mr. Banda, a corrupt and inept government official. Tied to the ground by a white ribbon, Shula is told that she will turn into a goat if she tries to escape. As the only child witch, Shula quickly becomes a local star and the adults around her exploit her supposed powers for financial gain. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom.

ALSO STREAMING ON FILM MOVEMENT PLUS:

LUCKY, a film by Avie Luthra

How could an orphaned, 10-year old homeless boy ever be called Lucky? Through an odyssey marked by greed, violence and, ultimately, belonging, Lucky shows how a child's spirit can bring out decency, humility and love in adults struggling to survive in the new South Africa.

MUNYURANGABO, a film by Lee Isaac Chung

After stealing a machete from a market in Kigali, two young Rwandan boys leave the city on a journey tied to their pasts. Munyurangabo wants justice for his parents who were killed in the genocide, and Sangwa wants to visit the home he deserted years ago.

UNDER THE BOMBS, a film by Philippe Aractingi

During a cease-fire in the Lebanon-Israeli conflict of 2006, a Christian taxi driver brings a Shiite woman from Beirut to the heart of the conflict in the country's south. During their trip, the two travelers develop a deep bond as a response to the devastation all around them.

THE BAREFOOT ARTIST, a film by Glenn Holsten & Daniel Traub

This moving documentary chronicles the life of Lily Yeh, an artist committed to creating community projects in the world's most troubled areas. From Kenya to Rwanda she has taught war survivors to regain their hope and the belief that life can be about creation as well as destruction.

‘Listen’ (‘Ismaii’): Film Review | Dubai 2016

A romantic sound man patiently sends sound bites to his lost girlfriend, in Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s (Under the Bombs) stab at lighter fare, 'Listen'.

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🇺🇸What do you love/hate most about Lebanon? Here’s what young actor and filmmaker @Hady Bou Ayash, 27, has to say about Lebanon...among other things :) Hady was recently seen in Listen, a movie by Philippe Aractingi. He wants to inspire Lebanese people to protect the environment, because “nature is home”, as he keeps saying. Listen to him genuinely answer our intimate and sometimes random questions :) Better yet, share YOUR own answers in the comments : What do you love most about Lebanon? :D #becausewealllovelabneh Video by @d.darmency @beyondtheroadproductions ---- 🇫🇷Qu’est-ce que vous aimez/ détestez le plus au Liban ? On a posé la question et 12 autres beaucoup plus intimes à l’acteur et réalisateur Hady Bou Ayash, 27 ans. Il dédie son talent pour inspirer les Libanais à protéger l’environnement, “car la nature c’est notre maison” répète-t-il. (découvrez notre portrait bientôt dans L&F). Vous l’avez peut-être vu dans le film Listen de Philippe Aractingi ou plus récemment dans Martyr de Mazen Khaled. C’est le premier des 9 Changemakers Libanais avec qui nous avons mené une interview vraiment pas comme les autres :) Alors n’hésitez pas à donner votre avis, et répondez-vous aussi à nos questions déjantées en commentaires : qu’est ce que vous aimez le plus à propos du Liban? #becausewealllovelabneh Video by @d.darmency @beyondtheroadproductions

TOP 5 LEBANESE MOVIES

So, I realize you can just google « Best Lebanese Movies » and have the internet sort them out for you, by box-office entries, prizes, notoriety etc. But see, these lists will probably be written by a very objective hand. I’m part Lebanese and as I have lived most of my life there, I know what movies are the most representative of that very special country, and are able to show its uniqueness (Trust me, I’m a film student). You see – and I’m not saying that only because I’m from there – Lebanon has an amazing artistic potential that is unfortunately not yet put forward. Plus, it’s marked by a complicated culture, a mix between an European influence, an Americanized Society and a very encrypted Arab identity. Lebanon has often been called the Switzerland of the Middle East. I don’t know how true that is, but what I do know is that it’s a complex country. Very lovable, yet hard to understand and to capture. The movie business in Lebanon is only now flourishing and in a very shy way. But I guess movies are a way to represent its tangled history. So, if you’re interested in discovering a new culture, here’s my top 5 to help you out.

Top 5 – Blind intersections, Lara Saba, 2012

Three protagonists, one city. Coming from different backgrounds, they pass each other but they never meet, though, the effect of one incident will drastically alter the lives of the three of them in just a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, this movie did not get the audience or the critical response it should have received. Therefore, you won’t find it in any other top Lebanese movies list (See? I turned out to be useful). The Lebanese public was so conditioned to either war movies or cheap comedies that they hardly accept any other style. However, the young generation of filmmakers claims that we’ve all had enough of these two genres and that it is time to try out different styles and stories. That is what Lara Saba tried to do with this very script-based movie. It might not be perfect, and maybe you’ll find it boring or think – what did I just get into? But in any case, it surely helped widen the Lebanese artistic scene to more diverse subjects.

Here’s a trailer. AND it’s well done for once (who’s working for ya?)

Top 4 – Bosta, Philippe Aractingi, 2005

Bosta is a story of young Lebanese artists who meet again, after being separated, and tour different cities of Lebanon in an old bus (Bosta in Arabic), performing a techno version of the dabkeh (the traditional Lebanese dance) that shocks conservatives, but moves forward towards the future.  Being a Lebanese version of a Bollywood film, it tends to deliver an atmosphere rather than a real script. Even though I’m a script fan, and I realize we still haven’t really achieved good scriptwriting skills in Lebanon, I still believe this movie is essential because feeling the Dabke mood is a must when trying to understand Lebanese traditions. The amount of craziness Lebanese people put into that dance is completely out of proportions and a vital part of our identity. And trust me, even the gloomiest man in the world (Putin…?) would want to visit our country after this movie, as it conveys such joy and spirit that it eventually gets to you.

Now I couldn’t find a trailer with English subtitles, but if you want to give the atmosphere a try before you watch it, here it is: 

Top 3 – West Beirut, Ziad Doueiri, 1998

Now I know all these names sound strange, almost barbaric to you. What if I told you that Ziad Doueiri was the director of Baron Noir, the Canal + French series that was critically acclaimed? There, now that I got your attention and you feel less a stranger in all this, you must know that Doueiri talked about the Lebanese war in the most sensible way. As I said before, we Lebanese people have been so obsessed with our big tragedy that you will mostly find, in our film catalogue, movies about this period of time. Under the bombs, Zozo, In the battlefield or Where do we go now are a few of the best examples (in case you don’t give a damn about my list and you just want to harm yourself with dramatic war movies). But Doueiri’s version of our tragedy is, for me, the most elaborate one. In April 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is divided along a Muslim-Christian line and is segregated into East and West Beirut. After the line was created, Tarek, a Muslim, is now considered to live in West Beirut (the Muslim part) and is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a game for them, as the school gets closed; the violence is fascinating, and getting from West to East is a joke. Tarek starts spending time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. Later on, and as he comes of age, the war inevitably stops being an adventure and becomes a nationwide tragedy. As I said, Lebanon has been badly hurt by the 1975-1990 war, it has affected its people so much that we can’t ignore it in our process to discover the local culture. And West Beirut will probably be your best ally for that. Encrypted in the West-East division of the capital, the story of these 3 youngsters is harsh, touching and yet full of humor. A mix that Doueiri managed to cook in the wittiest way possible, away from useless melodrama.

Again, couldn’t find a proper trailer. Sorry, I realize I’m not really encouraging you to watch these. Anyway here’s an extract that you might like:

Top 2 – Caramel, Nadine Labaki, 2007

This is the movie that will describe best to you what living in Lebanon feels like. The film premiered at the 2007 Cannes Festival, in the Directors' Fortnight section and it ran for the Caméra d'Or. It was distributed in over 40 countries, easily becoming the most internationally acclaimed and exposed Lebanese film to date. The story focuses on the lives of five Lebanese women dealing with issues such as forbidden love, binding traditions, repressed sexuality, the struggle to accept the natural process of age, and duty versus desire. Labaki's film is unique for not showcasing a war-ravaged Beirut but rather a warm and inviting place where people deal with universal issues. The title Caramel refers to an epilation method that consists of heating sugar, water and lemon juice. Labaki obviously was inspired by an Almodovar touch, but also managed to put her story in a typical Lebanese frame. The movie is in every bit representative of our daily routines in Lebanon, dominated by the over presence of religion, the scare of getting old, the struggles of an unmarried couple and the fear of affirming one’s sexual orientation. In a mix between humor and a more dramatic tone, it managed to give a truthful spectrum of different women and their struggles in a conservative yet rebellious society.

YAS! A proper trailer with English subtitles! Who’s your favourite Lebanese movie blogger?

Top 1 – Very Big Shot, Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, 2015

Listen to me. This movie is really worth watching. Because when I watched it, I found it very good and for the first time ever, not only compared to Lebanese standards. It was just plain good. Still not convinced? Well, it was screened in the Discovery section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as the Lebanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards even though it was not nominated in the end. But it tells the story of brothers Ziad and Joe who run a small but lucrative drug-dealing business out of their takeout pizzeria in one of Beirut’s working-class districts. Ziad’s supplier, a powerful drug lord convinces the brothers who wanted to retire to take on one last job: smuggling a million-dollar shipment of amphetamine to Syria, where the drug is wildly popular with militia fighters. To succeed in it, they decide to hide it in cans of exposed film reels and to avoid raising doubts around them, the three brothers become the producers of a feature film directed by Charbel, a talentless filmmaker and customer in debt of their pizzeria. The script is smooth, the actors amazing, it is embedded in a very Lebanese nature but without overdoing it. And it’s just very smart. The very young filmmaker actually made a short version of it with the same story as his senior project in film school. And no, I didn’t get that information from the internet; believe it or not, everybody knows everybody in Lebanon, and I have met the filmmaker in person as we are both graduates from the same film school (very small country). Anyway, he approached the very common subject of drug-dealing in his own way. The film is so well-built that it drags you down to its very special atmosphere, and dishonest reckless characters. The whole is located in a third-world country where scam and cheat are the way to avoid authorities and get what you want.                      

Very good trailer. Why ? When did I ever give you bad ones?

‘Listen’ (‘Ismaii’): Film Review | Dubai 2016

A romantic sound man patiently sends sound bites to his lost girlfriend in 'Listen,' Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s ('Under the Bombs') stab at lighter fare.

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‘Listen’ (‘Ismaii’): Film Review | Dubai 2016

‘Listen’ (‘Ismaii’): Film Review | Dubai 2016

A romantic sound man patiently sends sound bites to his lost girlfriend in ‘Listen,’ Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s (‘Under the Bombs’) stab at lighter fare. read more Hollywood Reporter – All Reviews

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The 365 Film Challenge

373. November 30 - Under the Bombs - 2007, Philippe Aractingi

Lebanon's civil war ended a quarter of a century ago but its filmmakers remain fixated on this dark period, seeing their movies as a kind of catharsis to help heal collective trauma. The latest example to hit the screens is "Mirath" ("Heritages") by French-Lebanese filmmaker Philippe Aractingi. Mingling fact and fiction, Aractingi shares with his children memories of the 1975-1990 war, his exile and his return home, a story to which most Lebanese can relate. "The Lebanese tend to deny the past and the war" that pitted Christian militias against Palestinian groups and their Lebanese Muslim and leftist allies, Aractingi told AFP. Source: AFP

🇺🇸What do you love/hate most about Lebanon? Here’s what young actor and filmmaker @Hady Bou Ayash, 27, has to say about Lebanon...among other things :) Hady was recently seen in Listen, a movie by Philippe Aractingi. He wants to inspire Lebanese people to protect the environment, because “nature is home”, as he keeps saying. Listen to him genuinely answer our intimate and sometimes random questions :) Better yet, share YOUR own answers in the comments : What do you love most about Lebanon? :D #becausewealllovelabneh Video by @d.darmency @beyondtheroadproductions ---- 🇫🇷Qu’est-ce que vous aimez/ détestez le plus au Liban ? On a posé la question et 12 autres beaucoup plus intimes à l’acteur et réalisateur Hady Bou Ayash, 27 ans. Il dédie son talent pour inspirer les Libanais à protéger l’environnement, “car la nature c’est notre maison” répète-t-il. (découvrez notre portrait bientôt dans L&F). Vous l’avez peut-être vu dans le film Listen de Philippe Aractingi ou plus récemment dans Martyr de Mazen Khaled. C’est le premier des 9 Changemakers Libanais avec qui nous avons mené une interview vraiment pas comme les autres :) Alors n’hésitez pas à donner votre avis, et répondez-vous aussi à nos questions déjantées en commentaires : qu’est ce que vous aimez le plus à propos du Liban? #becausewealllovelabneh Video by @d.darmency @beyondtheroadproductions

http://ift.tt/2iKt6VG A romantic sound man patiently sends sound bites to his lost girlfriend in 'Listen,' Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s ('Under the Bombs') stab at lighter fare.

read more

via Entertainment News http://ift.tt/2iKt6VG A romantic sound man patiently sends sound bites to his lost girlfriend in 'Listen,' Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s ('Under the Bombs') stab at lighter fare.

read more