DIAMAND BOU ABBOUD

THE INSULT (2018)
Starring Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Rita Hayek, Christine Choueiri, Diamand Bou Abboud, Camille Salameh, Talal Jurdi, Julia Kassar, Rifaat Torbey and Carlos Chahine. Directed by Ziad Doueiri.

It’s a scorching hot afternoon in Beirut. 40-something mechanic Tony already has a chip on his shoulder about Palestinians in Lebanon, so he’s less than welcoming when 60 year-old Yasser, the foreman of a construction crew working on the street outside, asks him to fix the faulty drainpipe on his balcony. Tony closes the door in his face, so Yasser replaces the pipe anyway, only for Tony to smash it to pieces. Passions boil over and the two come to blows, both verbal and physical. Eventually lawyers are called in and the men find themselves in the centre of a highly publicised trial – one that reopens historical and personal wounds on both sides.

REVIEWS The Insult - A brilliant examination of the nature of conflict

INSYRIATED
Starring Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bou Abboud, Juliette Navis, Mohsen Abbas, Moustapha Al Kar, Alissar Kaghadou, Ninar Halabi, Mohammad Jihad Sleik, Elias Khatter and Husam Chadat. Directed by Philippe Van Leeuw.

Trapped inside her house in a city under siege, Oum Yazan, mother of three, turned her flat into a safe harbour for her family and neighbours, trying to protect them from the war outside. When bombs threaten to destroy the building, when snipers turn the courtyards into deadly zones, and burglars break in to claim their dreadful bounties, maintaining the thin balance of routine inside the walls becomes a matter of life and death.

REVIEWS Insyriated - Escaping war within a personal prison