Movie Review : Coming of Age, Civil War in Vivid ‘West Beirut’

“West Beirut” is, literally, another country heard from. It’s not only that Lebanon, all but destroyed by more than a decade of civil war, has sent hardly any films to the wider world, but that the entirety of Arabic-speaking cultures rarely appears on American screens. This new film, honest, authentic and heartfelt, gives us a sense of what we’ve been missing.

“West Beirut” is written and directed by Ziad Doueiri, a 36-year-old filmmaker who studied at UCLA and has been part of the camera crew on all of Quentin Tarantino’s films. His is an autobiographical film based on his coming-of-age years in Beirut, but in both setting and, more important, attitude, it couldn’t be further away from the kind of self-indulgent moroseness that similar American films project.

Teenage Tarek (effectively played by Rami Doueiri, the filmmaker’s brother) is that instantly recognizable type, the class clown, the kind of guy who can’t help but smirk when his teacher, in this case a humorless disciplinarian at the city’s French-speaking high school, bawls him out for his insubordinate nature.

But while Tarek is exiled in the hall for being a troublemaker, he sees something out the window that will change his life: A group of hooded gunmen inexplicably massacres the passengers on a local bus. It is April 13, 1975, the start of Lebanon’s civil war.

For Tarek’s lawyer mother, Hala (Carmen Lebbos), and father Riad (Joseph Bou Nassar), this conflict, even in a city that had known many, is hard to understand. “They’ll send some Americans to do a little negotiating and it’s over,” Riad says, but it turns out to be hardly that simple. In fact, the city is soon divided into warring halves, Christian East Beirut and Muslim West Beirut, and passage between them occurs only at very real risk to your life.

At first Tarek and his best friend, the short but high-energy Omar (Mohamad Chamas), can’t focus on these adult concerns. All they know is that school is closed for the duration, leaving them more time to indulge in their joint passion for Super-8 filmmaking.

“West Beirut” is especially good at providing an affectionate portrait of these guys just hanging out, smoking, listening to American music, spinning sexual fantasies and trying to figure out life. What sets this apart from similar autobiographical forays is that writer-director Doueiri is able to remain noticeably cleareyed, not indulgent, in looking backward, presenting characters for exactly who they are, irritations and all.

Slowly, partly because he becomes infatuated with the beautiful Catholic refugee girl May (Rola Al Amin), who moves into his building--an irked and slightly displaced Omar calls her “the Virgin Mary”--Tare comes to an understanding of what is happening to his city and his family. Though still spaced-out enough at times to have people yell at him, “What planet are you from?,” Tarek reluctantly grasps that nothing will ever be simple again.

Given that “West Beirut” is essentially an episodic film, a series of loosely connected incidents, it’s fortunate that Doueiri has both a gift for creating vivid, eccentric characters and enabling his actors, who range from children cast from orphanages to some of Lebanon’s most respected professionals, to realize his words.

There’s the celebrated madam Oum Walid (Leila Karam), a manic neighborhood baker (Mahmoud Mabsout) and a hefty, sharp-tongued neighbor (Liliane Nemry) who has command of a variety of memorable curses like “May Allah spread pain all over you” and the always popular “Your son is a blood clot in my vein.”

This verbal expressiveness (“You’re shish-kabobing me on a small flame,” someone complains) is part of the reason Doueiri is able to accomplish so much with “West Beirut.” He conveys a sense of what his city was like during the turmoil and how it was for teenagers finding their way in a world where gunfire can be counted on to punctuate everything.

As always, it’s a grounding in specific reality that makes something ring universally true.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: a scene in a brothel.

‘West Beirut’

Rami Doueiri: Tarek

Mohamad Chamas: Omar

Rola Al Amin: May

Carmen Lebbos: Hala

Joseph Bou Nassar: Riad

Liliane Nemry: Neighbor

A La Sept Arte, 3B production, released by Cowboy Booking International. Director Ziad Doueiri. Producers Rachid Bouchareb, Jean Brehat. Screenplay Ziad Doueiri. Cinematographer Ricardo Jacques Gale. Editor Dominique Marcombe. Costumes Pierre Matard. Music Stewart Copeland. Production design Hamze Nasrallah. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

In limited release.