Under the Bombs

Plot

Although she grew up in Lebanon, wealthy Lebanese Muslim Zeina Nasrueddi (Nada Abu Farhat) has been living in Dubai with her architect husband and son, Karim. Marital difficulties led her to send her son to spend the summer with her sister Maha in Lebanon. When the 2006 Lebanon War began she traveled to Beirut via Turkey. In order to find her son, she hires Lebanese Christian taxi driver Tony (Georges Khabbaz) to drive her to Southern Lebanon. In their search for Maha and Karim, they encounter the devastation wrought by the war and learn each other's personal secrets, including the fact that Tony's brother was a member of the South Lebanon Army and is now living in exile in Israel.

Cast

Release

Under the Bombs was one of two films shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on the 2006 Lebanon War. The other was Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor's Strangers.

The film was presented in 2008 as part of the Giornate degli Autori - Venice days, a parallel section of the Venice film festival.

Critical response

Jonathan Curiel of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film the Chronicle's highest rating, stating that "Aractingi, a Lebanese director, has - with the help of superb performances by Khabbaz and Abou Farhat - made a work that deftly navigates complicated truths."

Awards