Civilisées
France / Lebanon,
1999, 95 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Randa Chahal Sabbag
- prod
-
Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Frederic Sichler
- scr
-
Randa Chahal Sabag
- cam
-
Ricardo Jacques Gale, Roby Breid
- editor
-
Juliette Weifling
- cast
-
Jalila Baccar, Nada Ghosn, Renee Dick, Hassan Farhat, Myrna Maakaron, Carmen Lebbos, Sotigui Kouyaté
- source
-
President Films, 2, rue Lord Byron, 75008 Paris, France. FAX: 331-45-63-40-56
OTHER
Born into a Muslim family in North Africa, the Paris-based Randa Chahal Sabag has spent the better part of her career examining war-ravaged Lebanon. Her latest film, set in 1981 Beirut, focuses on the lives of the people, mainly immigrants and servants, who remained there after the wealthy Lebanese abandoned their mansions and luxury apartments for Europe. Chahal Sabag adopts a comical, absurdist tone in depicting the surreal quality of daily life within a war zone. Sri Lankan and Filipina maids obliviously continue their domestic routine in an abandoned building. A chauffeur in the Christian quarter holds two young Arabs hostage in the hopes of exchanging them for his own son being held by Muslims, and a Palestinian housekeeper nags him to set them free, because she can’t stand the screams. And amidst the chaos, a young Christian girl falls in love with a Muslim militiaman. Chahal Sabag never lets us forget the horrors of war, interspersing comic scenes alongside chilling acts of violence perpetrated by Christians and Muslims alike. The idea is not to cast blame, but to be forever mindful of the savagery of war. It is unfortunate then that the Lebanese government has blocked the film’s release.
—Beverly Berning
FACTOID #12
In our occasional film series, The Unvanquished, we showcased the work of filmmakers who continued to make their art despite suffering artistic repression. Those honored include directors Paul Carpita (1996), Paul Meyer (1996), Abraham Polonsky (1996) and John Berry (1998) and actors Karen Morley (1999) and Behrouz Vossoughi (2001).
