UNDER THE BOMBS

Philippe Aractingi Written by: Michel Léviant, Philippe Aractingi Starring: Bshara Atallah, Bshara Atallay, Rawia Elchab, Nada Abou Farhat, Georges Khabbaz Distributed by: Artificial Eye Film will be released in the U.K. on March 21st 2008 Review by Michael Edwards

rating: 4.5

This is a truly visceral film, I can't think of a better way to put it. Often crude in its devices and occasionally a little aggressive in getting it's points across, it nonetheless stands as a poignant monument to a conflict in which the filmmaker had a personal insight and a desperate need to express. Writer and director Philippe Aractingi is from Beirut and Under the Bombs is being billed as his 'angry reaction' to Israeli invasion of Lebanon on July 12th 2006. In fact this is probably not just a piece of media hype, when a film begins shooting a mere ten days after the start of the conflict it takes as it's setting - you know it's a gut response. The tale centres around Zeina (Nada Abou Farhat), a resident of Dubai who, in the midst of a divorce, sent her son to stay with her sister in Southern Lebanon. Once the fighting breaks out she panics and goes in a desperate search for her loved ones. She is instantly held up by the shortage of drivers willing to take her into the treacherous south, which is now heavily mined, riddled with booby traps and still carries the threat of further military incursions. Fortunately for her she finds Tony (Georges Khabbaz), a Christian who seems to do almost anything for a price. As they toil through the perilous journey the two are drawn closer together, and we are presented with fascinated portraits of a woman whose inner strength is tested to the limit, and a man whose ambiguous character and occasionally skewed sense of morality develops and continues to reveal hidden depths in a myriad of testing circumstances. If the plot sometimes lapses into contrived moments it is because this is a film that really has an axe to grind, the whole essence of the screen is a bellowed roar of frustration at the destruction wrought upon a nation. The footage takes in countless homes reduced to rubble, twisted and smashed bridges and whole streets littered with debris. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Under the Bombs is that Aractingi hired only two actors, the rest of the characters in the film (who ranged from refugees to journalists, soldiers to religious folk) were all played by themselves. This lends the already viscerally resonant film a priceless aura of truth that overshadows any of the grievances the director is at pains to air through his plot twists and documentary-esque cinematography. An outstandingly engaging film that works on so many levels, be it the artistic interest inherent in so clear an authorial expression of frustration, the honesty of a film made largely with real people who experienced the conflict taken as the subject f the film, or simply an emotional journey through a war-torn region. This one is a must-see. UNDER THE BOMBS is out in selected UK cinemas on 21st March.