Lebanon

CHICAGO – One of the best films of 2018 is “Capernaum.” The title means “Chaos,” and co-writer/director Nadine Labaki certainly created a form of that action in the crazy quilt journey of the main character of Zain, an undocumented immigrant boy in Lebanon. From a story that takes us from his street survival to a court of law… suing his parents, “Capernaum” is a multi-layered masterpiece.

CHICAGO – The clash of ideologies or religion that result in war is one of the most emotional of reasons to fight (and convenient for those who manipulate such emotions). “The Insult,” a contender for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, shows how feelings can escalate to bitter conflict.

CHICAGO – The morality of conflict is brought to form in the new film, “Where Do We Go Now?,” written and directed by Nadine Labaki. This is a speculative fable about a small town in Lebanon that lives in harmony, as long as they are stay away from religious battles that plague the rest of the country. The town loves their peace, and the women there want to keep it that way.

CHICAGO – It’s not hard to imagine viewers of “Lebanon” starting to sweat. It is a claustrophobic tale of war that has drawn deserved comparisons to Wolfgang Peterson’s brilliant “Das Boot” and it is nearly as good a film. This surreal nightmare stands as one of the better war films of the last several years and deserves a much broader international audience than it has yet achieved.