{"id":27900,"date":"2018-02-23T03:50:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T11:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=27900"},"modified":"2018-02-21T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T22:07:50","slug":"tensions-trigger-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/02\/23\/tensions-trigger-insult\/","title":{"rendered":"Tensions trigger Insult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adel Karam as Toni, left, and Kamel El Basha as Yasser in The Insult<\/em>. (photo from Cohen Media Group)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ziad Doueiri was born in Lebanon, studied filmmaking at San Diego State and worked nonstop for more than a decade in Los Angeles as an assistant cameraman shooting Quentin Tarantino\u2019s early movies, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my favourite films of all time, I looked at the film and said, \u2018One day, I hope I make a movie like this,\u2019 is Judgment at Nuremberg<\/em>,\u201d confided the impassioned director of Lebanon\u2019s official Oscar submission, The Insult<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Stanley Kramer\u2019s 1961 courtroom drama, Doueiri set out to make a deeply felt moral saga using a familiar American genre that would connect with an international audience. The catalyst that sets The Insult<\/em> in motion is an altercation on a Beirut street between a Lebanese Christian mechanic and a Palestinian construction supervisor. They are unable to resolve their disagreement for personal reasons \u2013 male ego and pride, to start \u2013 compounded by the overriding political context. The Insult<\/em> unfolds against a backdrop of half a million Palestinians living as refugees in a country with a population of four million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palestinians came in 1948,\u201d Doueiri noted in an interview during a visit to San Francisco late last year. \u201cThey never returned, they could not return. They were not given green cards. They were not given the right to settle in Lebanon, or the right to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lebanese government\u2019s logic, according to the Paris-based filmmaker, was and is \u201cif we give you jobs, you\u2019ll start making a good life. And if a Palestinian settles down in Lebanon and does not go to Palestine, the Israelis are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the dispute between the antagonists escalates into a court case that, unexpectedly, turns into a penetrating historical inquiry exposing the depths of simmering resentment between the Lebanese and Palestinians. The elephant in the courtroom, of course, is Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Insult<\/em> is not about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,\u201d stressed Doueiri. \u201cIt\u2019s a story of two people, one who is seeking justice and the other who doesn\u2019t believe in it. The film is also about [how] you cannot have exclusivity on massacres. The Palestinians, in the last 20, 30, 40 years, they have kind of gained a monopoly on their suffering. The Insult<\/em> is a way of saying, \u2018You can\u2019t blame Israelis all the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueiri acknowledged that his emigration to the United States in 1983 began a process of dissipating the hatred he grew up with for everything that\u2019s Jewish and Israeli. Another important turning point was shooting The Attack<\/em> \u2013 his first-rate thriller about a successful Arab surgeon in Tel Aviv whose world collapses after his wife commits a terrible crime \u2013 in Israel in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dedication of the Israeli crew on my film was fantastic,\u201d Doueiri said with his characteristic intensity. \u201cHow could that not change you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Doueiri took a huge risk shooting The Attack<\/em> in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is it a moral dilemma for the Lebanese that one of their compatriots went to Israel, it\u2019s a legal problem,\u201d he explained. \u201cI violated Law 285. It is incontestable.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Doueiri flew to Beirut in September last year after premi\u00e8ring The Insult<\/em> at the Venice Film Festival \u2013 where Kamel El Basha received the best actor award for his portrayal of Yasser \u2013 he was arrested at the airport. He claims he was released due to the direct intercession of the prime minister, but, regardless, he had to appear the next day before a military judge who specializes in cases involving Israeli collaborators and ISIS terrorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge was really bothered by this case,\u201d Doueiri said. \u201cHe knows that I did not collaborate with the Israelis. I did not share military information. I just went to do a movie. And I\u2019m an American citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for everyone concerned, Doueiri\u2019s lawyer discovered a loophole: the five-year statute of limitations had expired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t it great?\u201d Doueiri said with a smile. \u201cThis is how I was acquitted. It\u2019s a movie. Isn\u2019t it a movie?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Insult<\/em> generated a lot of debate when it screened in Beirut in the fall, according to Doueiri. A truly happy ending would be if it gets a wide release in the Arab world.<\/p>\n

The Insult<\/em> opens Friday, Feb. 23, at Vancity Theatre (viff.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Michael Fox<\/strong> is a writer and film critic living in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adel Karam as Toni, left, and Kamel El Basha as Yasser in The Insult. (photo from Cohen Media Group) Ziad Doueiri was born in Lebanon, studied filmmaking at San Diego State and worked nonstop for more than a decade in Los Angeles as an assistant cameraman shooting Quentin Tarantino\u2019s early movies, among others. \u201cOne of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[7875,1172,2708,7876],"class_list":["post-27900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-lebanon","tag-palestinians","tag-refugees","tag-ziad-doueiri"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}