West Beirut

West Beirut is one of the best films from the Middle East, and undoubtedly the strongest portrait of the Lebanese war that has been put up on the big screen. Tarek and Omar, both Muslims, and May, who is a Christian, are friends. The group of three live a care free teenage life. They are street smart gangsters, but with a youthful vulnerability just below the surface. The war that breaks out in 1975 does not immediately change the everyday life of the three friends, but rather it fills it with some long-awaited excitement. Equipped with a Super 8 camera they maneuver through an increasingly militarized city, looking for a photo shop where they can develop the film they've shot. At the same time, the horrors of the war are moving closer, and their different religious identities, that has been of no concern to them in the past, are suddenly held against them. The strength of West Beirut lies in a combination of amazing acting, a beautiful portrait of friendship, and an impressive portrayal of everyday life in an ever-deteriorating state of war.

Ziad Doueiri (b. 1963) is a filmmaker from Lebanon. He studied film in the US and worked as a camera assistant on several of Quentin Tarantino’s films. Doueiri’s feature film debut is the autobiographical West Beirut (1998), which received critical acclaim worldwide. He has also directed films like Lila Says (2004) and The Attack (2012), the latter screened at Arab Film Days in 2013.