Under the Bombs Movie Review

Directed by Philippe Aractingi, Under the Bombs/Sous les Bombs is an independent film shot in the midst of the chaos and bombs of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Directed by under a tight budget, the movie is compromised by just a few characters but includes actual film of the war. Zelna, the protagonist in the movie, played by actress Nada Abou Farhat, is a a woman who has been recently separated from her cheating, well-off husband. Prior to her marriage, she, along with her family, lived in southern Lebanon. She sends her six-year-old son, Karem, to southern Lebanon just prior to the war to spend time with her sister, thinking that it would be better for him to be away while she and her husband were fighting. Then, days later, the bombs fell. She is despairing because she cannot locate her sister or Karem and cannot get through via telephone. Since much of Under the Bombs was filmed in Lebanon  during the war we get to experience a very real war in the eyes of a fictional mother's despair in this film. 

No taxi driver wants to drive Zelna to southern Lebanon when she asks, saying that it is too dangerous and suggesting they take her to Damascus, instead. Finally, one taxi driver Tony (played by Georges Khabbaz) offers to take her there, but his offer appears at the beginning to be less due to kindness on Tony's part than a combination of attraction to Zelna and a want of money. 

Tony, the Christian cab driver, and Zelna, the sophisticated, educated Shiite woman form a profound friendship. Tony himself says that speaking with Zelna was the first time he had ever opened his heart to a woman to the extent of tears. It is a powerful film in which we see not only a mother's despair surrounded by explosions and bombs, but a glimpse into the horrid life in the refugee camps and how life felt for the Lebanese, particularly the southern Lebanese, during the brief, but brutal, war. It does this without ever showing a single dead body or gruesome scene. All we see and hear are the exploding bombs and the left-over debris and ruins.

The movie is not without its lighthearted moments, however. Georges Khabbaz is a prominent Lebanese comedian and even though here he is acting in a drama, he does have a couple of humorous lines, notably (I'm paraphrasing, because I don't recall the quote word-for-word) "Jews look just like us. Except that they're rich."

It is a must-see for all who are interested in seeing a beautiful film shot in the midst of the chaos of the war.