Beirut Documentary Makers Call "Foul" on Italy.

In a testament to the strength of the human desire to laugh A team of two young documentary makers living in Beirut, Tarek Kandil and Montasser Bayoud from "Grey Mog" studios, have produced a short documentary called "Foul" which, under the pretence of investigating the possible link between Italian victories in the world cup in 1982 and 2006 with the coinciding Israeli invasions of Lebanon, explores the lives and attitudes of a variety of Beirut's residents. Some (including one Australian and one Italian) are foreigners, some lifetime Beirut residents. Some are people who have set up temporary homes in Beirut to escape the bombing in the south.

While most of those who have seen the movie have enjoyed it, the film makers have had one person who after seeing it was "ticked off", apparently telling them "you guys should be talking about the people dying". I do not concur.

The film is an exercise in simplicity and in all honesty, quite hilarious and touching. Each interviewee is asked the same questions, starting with who they are and where they're from and culminating with the question "Do you see any link between the Italian world cup victories now and in 1982 and the Israeli invasions of Lebanon in the corresponding years?" Everyone interviewed bursts into laughter at this point bar one, a teenage refugee from the south, in an Italian flag T-shirt, who replies in a flat even tone. "No, it was just a coincidence". For him this is no joking matter. It is on this note that the documentary ends. The effect of this is more powerful than one would first assume. The boy's face and words are burned into my memory more deeply than the images of destroyed homes, coffins and corpses that a more conventional pair of documentary makers would have gone for.

I asked Raed Habib, partner in De Prague a trendy west Beirut Café/Bar which will be hosting the documentary's first public screening, and where a large chunk of it was shot, why he decided to show the film and he replied "I think we owe it to Beirut." These guys are not alone in the feeling that Beirut deserves to laugh at its own plight, a comedy show is due to open soon in Beirut theatres called simply "Laughter Under Shell-fire". Stay tuned for a review.