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Lebanon’s civil war as told through the eyes of a child. |
Jean Khalil Chamoun, France/Lebanon, 2000, 100 min
Coming of age stories are overdone in Hollywood movies and the independent cinema. Yet at times the genre perpetuates in new forms to give it a facelift worth taking a second look. Such is the case with Jean Khalil Chamoun’s In the Shadows of the City, which takes a surprising neutral stance to focus on the subtle human aspects of those who suffered in Lebanon’s nearly 16-year civil war.
It’s November 15, 1974 when a bomb suddenly drops in South Lebanon forever changing the life of 12-year old Rami, who dreams of being an artist, and his family. After enduring three days of Israeli bombing, Rami and his family flee to Beirut hoping to escape the brutalities of war only to find themselves forever entangled in nucleus of a “civil” war that rips apart the city, their family and their whole existence.
The drama, which played in New York at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival last week, takes the audience through the density of the civil war at an unflinching eye-level. The first half beautifully portrays Rami’s childhood. Rami, on the cusp of manhood, deals with new friendships, his first job and the pangs of first love as the war begins to tear the city asunder.
The scenes of Rami’s first year in Beirut are especially heartwarming in its sense of innocence under the guise of impending war. We are introduced to a fascinating array of characters, some humoristic (the “Winch”), some sinister (the “Hyena”) and others an eerie foreshadow of the future to come. But most striking in the movie is its strange, yet somewhat necessary, apolitical, non-religious flavor.
The civil war in Lebanon was one that pitted Muslims against Christians. But with Rami and his friends it’s hard to determine who is Muslim and who isn’t. Rami’s mother covers her head, but so do other Christian women. Also, Rami’s first-love and best friend, Yasmin, seems to be Muslim yet later her brother, Nadeem, and Rami end up on opposite sides of the battle. And each side sports good and bad characters.
Chamoun says he deliberately avoided specifying who was Christian and who was Muslim, especially when it came to the fighting scenes. “There is a good and a bad in the film,” he says, but I didn’t mention by name. We had good guys from all sects and we had bad guys.
“The problem in this film isn’t [determining which is the Christian side and which is the Muslim one]. There’s no Christian or Muslim in the dialogue – it’s ridiculous. In the West the emphasis is on this Christian/Muslim thing, when that wasn’t the case at all,” he adds. Chamoun, who scoffs at the idea that Lebanon endured a purely civil war, went on to say that outside factions, especially the Israeli government incited the Lebanese to fight each other.
In the film the early scenes of Rami and his friends, Yasmin and Walid, rise above the tensions of the city around them. Their eyes speak depths as they develop tight bonds. Yet their purity fast diminishes as the war’s noose tightens, causing Yasmin and her family to flee and Walid to join the resistance. Rami finds himself caught in the middle, unwilling to choose sides.
Fast forward 12 years and we find Rami (Majdi Machmouch) still struggling to remain neutral. He transports war victims to local hospitals, which brings him in contact again with Walid and the “Winch,” who are both fully involved in the resistance. They urge him to join, but he maintains his stance. But when he and his father are captured by the “enemy” on the frontline, Rami escapes only to lose his father.
Thus begins the distressing social commentary on the kidnapped hostages of the war. Rami, to avenge his father, joins up with the resistance. He fights through the streets, alleyways and shelled buildings of Lebanon, with the blast of guns echoing through the streets at every turn. Chamoun yanks the viewer into the war, bringing the rubble, smoke, fear and deception of the skirmishes to an unavoidable level. Every facet of life, every person is affected by the war.
“To make films about 16 years of civil war, it’s not enough,” Chamoun says. “It’s just part of what I saw. The country is weak because of the war. The sectarian problem is still a bit problem. People in power now are like the “Hyena” and Abou Samir (who is a leader in the resistance movement in the film). They were fighting against each other and now are in power together.”
In the Shadows of the City skillfully depicts the ravages of war on a vastly personal level. Though scenes of flirtations and some inappropriate dress may not be conducive to a Muslim audience, the larger social and political context is not to be missed. It may surprise viewers to see the absence of religion in the movie, but that very posture allows for a more direct level of contact – from one damaged heart to another.
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