| לבנון Lebanon |
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|---|---|
| Directed by | Samuel Maoz |
| Produced by | Uri Sabag Einat Bikel |
| Written by | Samuel Maoz |
| Starring | Oshri Cohen Itay Tiran |
| Music by | Alex Claude, David Liss |
| Cinematography | Giora Bejach |
| Editing by | Arik Leibovitch |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | September 2009 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
Lebanon (Hebrew title: לבנון) is an Israeli war film directed by Samuel Maoz. It won the Leone d'Oro at the 66th Venice International Film Festival,[1] becoming the first Israeli-produced film to have won that honour. In Israel itself the film has caused some controversy.[2] The film was nominated for 10 Ophir Awards, including Best Film. The film also won the 14th Annual Satyajit Ray Award.[3]
Maoz based the film on his experience as a young Israeli conscript during the war in Lebanon in 1982.[4][5] It has been described as an anti-war movie by British newspaper The Guardian.[2]
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The film depicts the inside of a tank, and the view from inside through the gunsight (every change in the horizontal and vertical viewing direction is accompanied by the hydraulic whine of the traversing gun turret). The film is set during the 1982 Lebanon war - the same war as in Waltz with Bashir and the film Beaufort. There are four Israeli soldiers inside: the driver in the tank's hull, the loader, the gunner and the commander in the turret. Part of the time, there is also the body of a dead Israeli soldier (kept there until it is taken away by helicopter), a Syrian POW, a visiting higher officer, and a visiting Phalangist (Lebanese Maronite Catholic allied with Israel) who threatens the POW.
The duty of the soldiers is to clear a Lebanese area from lebanese citizens. They are instructed to use phosphorus grenades that are forbidden by international treaty, but to use a code word for them, to conceal their use.
The gunner has never fired the tank's cannon in a war situation, and is hesitant at first. As a result, a fellow Israeli soldier is killed. The soldiers have to cope with the deteriorating state of the tank, the heat, bad atmosphere and small space inside, occasional failure of the communication equipment, navigational problems, and mutual quarrels.
After winning the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Maoz said: "I dedicate this award to the thousands of people all over the world who, like me, come back from war safe and sound. Apparently they are fine, they work, get married, have children. But inside the memory will remain stabbed in their soul."[6]
Maoz, when speaking to The Observer stated that he opposes the Israel-related protest call at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival: "The point of a film like mine is to open a dialogue, to get people talking to each other about important issues. This is something you can't do if films are boycotted. It makes no sense to boycott art. Maybe I wouldn't have won if Jane Fonda was on the jury, but she wasn't."[2] (Note that the open letter at the center of the protest against the spotlighting of Tel Aviv did not call for a boycott of the festival or any of its films.[7][8])
The Guardian described it as a "controversial choice", noting that some commentators in Israel have "raised concerns that the film will deter young men from volunteering for the army."[2] The Golden Lion is the highest award given to an Israeli film to date.[2] Maoz says many Israeli figures were against Lebanon even being featured at the Venice International Film Festival.[2] The Venice jury was chaired by Ang Lee, who had won the Golden Lion award in Venice in 2005 with Brokeback Mountain and in 2007 with Lust, Caution.[9] Lebanon competed against 24 other entries.[10] The win in Venice caused a boost in the film's popularity at the Toronto International Film Festival.[11]
The New York Times described Lebanon as "an astonishing piece of cinema".[4] Variety [12] magazine said Lebanon is "the boldest and best" of recent Israeli films based upon the Lebanon wars.[6][9]
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