Introduction
Sometimes, films are a journey to another era. Ziad Doueiri, a French, Lebanese director and filmmaker, offers a time-traveling experience, taking us back in time to explore the reality of post-colonial Beirut and the tragedy of the Lebanese civil war through his unique form of storytelling. His films, West Beirut and The Insult, won numerous international awards for their skillful depiction of a nation struggling with the aftermath of past trauma and violence. His work exhibits a raw authenticity and powerful motifs that reflect Lebanon’s rich history as a reminder of the persistent political and societal conflicts that Lebanon continues to experience.
This essay aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the cinematic portrayal of Lebanon’s past through a critical look at Doueiri’s films, West Beirut (1998) and The Insult (2017), exploring his unique approach to cinematic storytelling and political commentary.
Lebanon’s History: Sectarianism, Civil Wars, and External Interventions
“Pity the nation dividd into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation” (Gibran, as cited in Fisk, 2021). Those words, by Gibran Khalil Gibran, reflect the Lebanese struggle as a nation torn apart by internal division. The civil war is the climax of the ongoing internal and external sectarian disputes (Fisk, 2021, p.9) and the result of colonialism, as the remnants of colonial authority perpetuate insecurity and division (Said, 1979).
Lebanon proclaimed its independence on the 22nd of November, 1943, after the French Mandate withdrew its troops from its territories. However, it was never an independent country free from external governmental interference (AbdelKhalek, 2021). If we dive into the turbulent Lebanese history, we will find that it served as a battlefield for regional rivalries and governmental pressures, demonstrated by external interventions in the name of supporting particular religious sects.
Lebanon’s history is marked by complex tragedies resulting from sectarian tensions, regional power dynamics, and governmental interventions on behalf of political and religious sects that divide the nation (Fisk, 2001). The 13th of April 1975, around 10:30 A.M., Marks the start of a complicated 15-year-old civil war. Masked Christian militia gunmen attacked a bus full of Palestinians as it passed in Beirut’s Christian neighborhood, Ain al-Rummeneh (Perera, 2021).
During the War, Beirut was divided into West Beirut and East Beirut. Palestinian and Muslim militias dominated West Beirut, while Lebanese Christian militias and their allies controlled East Beirut (CaspianReport, 2020). Armed factions frequently established checkpoints where individuals were requested to present their ID cards to identify their religious and political orientations. Accordingly, some were slaughtered or exposed to acts of aggression (Ghoneim, 2016).
The Confusing Lebanese Identity
Since its inception, Lebanon has been characterized by internal strife, which explains its blurred sense of national identity. After its independence, “the unwritten agreement of 1943 following Lebanese independence as a multi-confessional state perfectly illustrates the confusing Lebanese identity.” (Baladi, 2018, p. 9). Understanding national identity requires looking into the country’s past, present, and future, as well as its political structure, social constructions, and cultural expressions. Yet, investigations and discussions about the Lebanese national identity are avoided taboos that bring up unpleasant truths about the painful past (Khatib, 2008).
West Beirut: The Start of a New Cinematic Era
Lina Khatib (2008), the author of “Lebanese Cinema”, explains that the film industry in Lebanon had been struggling with producing and distributing films due to the civil war. But in her words, “something magical had happened in 1998” (p. 16). Ziad Doueiri had produced West Beirut, marking “a new era in Lebanese cinema” (p. 16), which Khatib refers to as “the Renaissance era”. She explains that after Ziad Douieri, more Lebanese filmmakers produced civil war-related movies and were successful in captivating the audience and challenging traditional norms by portraying taboos that are often avoided in Lebanese historical texts. After West Beirut, Lebanese cinema served as a unique platform for addressing the unsightly realities of the war, providing a space for preserving, questioning, and condemning historical events.
Cultural Identity and Politics in West Beirut
West Beirut is an accurate representation of a teenage experience of the early years of the civil war in Beirut and a courageous unfolding of avoided taboos. The name of the film, in itself, takes us back to the regional division between Muslim and Christian militias. It focuses on the ugliness of the civil war, evoking the painful nostalgic memories of the people who lived through it. Thus, West Beirut also reminds the Lebanese of their shared history and collective identity, which takes us back to Stuart Hall’s (1989) first definition of identity as “a sort of collective one true self hiding behind the many other” (p. 69). Hall states: “In post-colonial societies, the rediscovery of this identity is often the object of what Franz Fanon once called a passionate research directed by the secret hope of discovering beyond the misery of today” (p. 69). For a Lebanese viewer who survived the war, the accuracy of the scenes where IDs were requested could trigger post-traumatic responses and serve as a reminder of the collectively experienced past.
Doueiri’s use of Dutch angle shots and shaky camera creates a sense of disorientation and amplifies themes of fear and chaos that convey memories of the war. He enables the audience to revisit and relive the collective experience of running down in panic to underground shelters, wearing their sleepwear. The ambient sounds of gunshots and bombings recreate an aura of fear and danger. He highlights the painful reality of poverty and lack of resources at that time, where people would stand in line to get a pack of bread, as accurately shown in the film. Even the film poster in Omar's room of a film released in 1975 takes us back to those years of agony. Most importantly, Doueiri uses excerpts of real footage from the civil war to show a destroyed Beirut and to appeal to the audience. Then, he continues to show the faces of external political leaders that contributed to this tragedy, such as Hafez al Asad, Ariel Sharon, and Yasser Arafat.
In West Beirut, Doueiri represents the Lebanese identity through the eyes of three teenagers – Tarek, Omar, and May. The identity struggle is evident, with the first struggle shown in the opening scene when Tarek, the protagonist, rebels against singing the French national anthem at school and uses a megaphone to sing the Lebanese national anthem. The first few scenes of the film demonstrate an unhealed post-colonial Beirut that was still suffering the aftermath of the French Mandate. The accuracy in this representation is demonstrated through the use of a setting in a French school as well as the linguistic code-switching between French and Arabic. Tarek even jokes about being “already in France every day” when his parents discuss going there. Thus, Doueiri sheds light on the legacy of colonialism, one of which is the civil war.
Hall’s second definition of cultural identity is also demonstrated in West Beirut. According to Hall (2015), cultural identity also consists of having unshared differences and recognizing what we become after going through distinct experiences. While on the school’s balcony, Tarek watches the bus massacre happening: a symbol resembling the start of the civil war. The film depicts Beirut being divided into East and West, shedding light on the loss of the Lebanese identity and showing that being a “Beiruti” was no longer considered one. In the scene where Tarek’s parents attempt to drop him off at school, the soldiers barricading the road inform them that only Christians are allowed to pass, reflecting the social and political division between Muslims and Christians. Such identity tensions and representations are also evident when Tarek befriends May, who wears a cross necklace, and introduces her to his friend Omar, who shows hostility towards her. Yet, later on, the trio embarks on perilous adventures amid the civil war and no school.
The film is full of political and religious symbolism that reflects the differences in cultural identity. Through Tarek, Omar, and May, youth representation emphasizes religious identities and practices like wearing a cross necklace as offering cultural distinctiveness (Dunne et al., 2020). In Tarek’s neighborhood, we see pictures of Musa Al Sader, a political leader representing the Muslim Shia militia. We can also hear the sound of adhan, which resembles the fact that Tarek lives in West Beirut. Tarek’s friend and neighbor is called Omar, which suggests that he comes from a Muslim Sunni family. Omar also has a Quranic verse hanging in his room. Additionally, the difference in accents in the film between southern and Beiruti suggests the diversity in a Lebanese neighborhood. Tarek and his mom fight with one of their troublesome neighbors, who is told to “go back to South Lebanon”, a place attributed to the Muslim Shia.
The use of French and Arabic interchangeably at the beginning of the film illustrates the prevalence of division in Beirut as well as the different attitudes that shape the Lebanese’s perception of their identity. When Tarek was in school (in East Beirut), the use of French was most prevalent. Why? French colonialism could be seen as a result of the French intervention on behalf of the Maronite Christian community after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. At the time, Christians in Damascus and Mount Lebanon were brutally slaughtered, which led to French soldiers being dispatched to safeguard the Christians (Perera, 2021). In other words, the Lebanese Christians were thankful for this mandate. Therefore, in the opening scene, Tarek’s teacher scolded him for refusing to sing the French anthem and disrespecting France, which according to her side of the story, brought Lebanon peace and education. Additionally, Tarek also mentions to his dad that he learned from his school that the Lebanese are not Arabs but Phoenicians, further resembling the ambiguity and complexity of the Lebanese identity. Historically, the Maronites’ identification with French culture helped them set themselves apart from Arabs and Muslims while also allowing them to fully embrace what they saw as their true Western heritage (Baladi, 2018).
“Over the last 30 years, Lebanese cinema has acted as a commentator on the normalization of war” (Khatib, 2008, p. 18). This film reflects the normalization of sectarian disputes throughout history. Growing up in Beirut, I had always heard my parents occasionally mentioning how they went to school under the bombs. Similarly, despite the bombs, Tarek’s parents insisted on driving him to school. His dad explains that when he was Tarek’s age, Lebanon went through many conflicts and that this strife would soon end as well. Tarek’s dad refuses to leave the country, believing that it is just the usual temporary strife, stating that “the Israeli are just taking revenge from the Palestinians”. Thus, he views Lebanon as a battlefield for external conflicts.
The Insult: A Political Critique on Sectarianism in the Lebanese Society
The Insult is a relatively newer film that portrays the struggle with cultural identity and the challenges of belonging in a society marked by historical divisions between Lebanese-born nationals and foreigners who sought refuge in Lebanon, making it their home. Typically, Palestine is associated with Muslims, drawing back the representations of the historic Christian-Muslim rivalry in Lebanon. A minor misunderstanding between Tony (the Christian Lebanese) and Yasser (the Palestinian refugee) is blown out of proportion by the words exchanged and ends up in courtrooms, creating a stir among Lebanese sectarian communities. Thus, the question of identity representation in The Insult is similar to that of West Beirut, revolving around the antagonistic relations between Christians and Muslims in Beirut.
When discussing the civil war, I often heard my relatives referencing the popular Arabic proverb “ القصة مش قصة رمانة القصة قصة قلوب مليانة” which can be roughly translated as “It’s not about that piece of pomegranate; it’s about hearts filled with pain.”, referring to the fact that the civil war was not merely a surface-level conflict but the tragic result of years of profound suffering, and mistrust. The same perspective is used to understand Doueiri’s film, The Insult. Through a minor dispute which starts with an insult and escalates into a national trial, the film sheds light on the deep-rooted tensions in Lebanese society. Tony insulted Yasser based on his identity, attracting an unfavorable response and leading to violent outbursts that stoked sectarian passions. In this context, an insult carries the weight of bigotry and animosity that are the result of the civil war. The film critiques political, social, and religious divisions through the theme of cultural identity; Doueiri explores the sameness and the difference in the historical experiences of a Palestinian Refugee in Lebanon and a Christian Lebanese.
In The Insult, Tony and Yasser do not share a national identity nor similar political and religious ideologies. Nonetheless, they both have their fair share of traumatic war experiences, where each one of them believes himself to be the victim. Both men are confronted with nostalgic moments and negative memories of the war that left many people dead and many more traumatized. Tony tells Yasser that he wishes Ariel Sharon had finished off Yasser’s community, reminding Yasser of the ugly war that Israel spearheaded. Sharon was Israel’s minister of defense who orchestrated the Lebanese civil war, with Israel targeting Palestinians (Fisk,2001). Such disturbing memories reveal how Yasser and Tony identify with the sameness and unity of a post-war identity created by a shared historical process.
In terms of the different experiences and ideologies, the film visualizes political and religious bigotry in several scenes such as the prevalence of political flags. For an audience unaware of the complicated Lebanese history, it would be difficult to understand Tony’s hostility towards Yasser at the beginning. Tony, is constantly listening to a speech by Bachir Gemayel, A former Christian militia commander. For Tony, this is a powerful, hopeful national speech, but for Yasser, this is a hate speech against Palestinians. Both men do not hate one another on a personal level but hold animosity toward the identity the other represents. The script of the film reveals the polarity in the narratives where characters do not share one fixed "truth". Tony’s wife dislikes his irrational bigotry and wants to live a peaceful life with him and their coming daughter, whom he wants to name “Sethrida”, after the Christian member of the Lebanese Parliament, “Sethrida Geagea”.#
Ziad Doueiri as an Auteur
Douieri uses film to express his views on political situations with a unique blend of objectivity and subjectivity that prompts viewers to re-evaluate their perspectives. When the experiences and self-perceptions of a nation vary from one person to the other, it can be challenging to provide an accurate historical account of one reality; and with a past intolerant of diversity, it can also be threatening to defend one truth. Doueiri was born in Beirut and lived through the civil war in West Beirut, where his parents refused to leave, yet his school was located in East Beirut (BBC News عربي, 2018). This reminds us of Tarek and his parents, who resemble a semi-autobiography of Ziad and maintain a raw authenticity in his storytelling. The choice of some characters’ names, each implying their sectarian identity, illustrates a realistic representation of the nation’s division. For a story told from West Beirut’s perspective, it successfully keeps a neutral representation, especially with the character “Em Waleed”, who refuses the identity of a Western or an Eastern Beiruti. The film makes no explicit political statement but indirectly addresses the political divide of the Christian-Muslim antagonism. It is also important to note that in West Beirut, Doueiri incorporates comedy to represent a painful reality in a light way for an audience who may have not been ready to revisit the memories of the war.
On the other hand, The Insult explicitly explores the political tensions between a Lebanese and a Palestinian. The two films are 19 years apart, but the second one reveals how the population is still struggling with the consequences of the war. Doueiri tries to show both sides of the story and wraps up with a beautiful ending that holds a message of hope for co-existence and forgiveness. However, this was an issue for the director, who revealed in an interview with BBC News عربي, that his film was boycotted by angry Muslims who were only able to see what was done to them and refused to look at what they did to the opposing forces (2018). This proves that his approach to representation successfully challenges viewers to reassess their viewpoints.
Conclusion
“Where history fails, the arts triumph” (Khatib, 2008, p. 18). Doueiri utilizes film as a potent medium to examine and assimilate the complex and painful history of Lebanon while simultaneously triggering the collective nostalgic memory of his audience. His films depict the ambiguity of the Lebanese identity, proving that cultural identity provides points of identification that shape identity politics (Hall, 2015). West Beirut and The Insult subtly explore the relationship between cultural identity and politics, as Christians and Muslims present their political stances based on their cultural identities. In a country known for sectarian discrimination, how possible is it for a talented Lebanese filmmaker like Ziad to produce an authentic but neutral piece of art without being misunderstood?
References
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