Con’s Score: 4.5 Dog Whistles
This Lebanese film (which has a lot of French investment) was nominated for an Academy award and won the audience vote at the Sydney Film Festival. It’s no surprise. This is one powerful film.
Tony Hannah (Axel Karam) is expecting a girl with his wife (Rita Hayek). He accidentally wets some builders, who offer to fix his illegal pipe. He refuses, they fix it anyway and he demolishes their repairs. The foreman, Yasser, (Kamel El Basha) swears at him. An attempt at apology ends in insults and fisticuffs, and soon they’re in court. The real issue here is that Tony is a nationalist and Yassr is a Palestinian, so their court case takes on deeper levels.
Enter the lawyers Wadji Wehbe (Camille Daley) and Nadine (Diamand Bou Abboud) who start to dismantle the protagonist’s worlds and reveal the deeper human issues revealed. Yet there is just as much happening outside the courtroom. The baby is born prematurely, there are attacks on Tony and soon the President intervenes. The whole country becomes involved.
This is carried by an excellent script and spot on acting. It’s hard to write a script where the antagonist and protagonist are interchangeable and play with your empathy. There’s lots of drama which avoids melodrama.
Tony is the casual racist who we like, despise and then forgive. El Basha plays a reserved man with a temper. And the lawyers shine without gong into histrionics – and even they have an interesting subplot.
The themes here are about immigration, pride and prejudice and how deep the scars of war run. It’s excellent in looking at how the conflict between two men can resonate so widely, more than they realise, but learn. It’s excellent script writing. And the plight of Palestinians is an international embarrassment.
Many countries’ worst wars were their civil wars. The fight of right v left. Historically they ended in bloodshed and scars that take generations to forget. This film explores these issues without a fairytale ending but with a deeper understanding.
This is the best film released so far this year. Be moved.
Con Nats – Theatre Now
