Middle East

‘The Insult’: Lebanese film gets Oscar nomination for first time

Director Ziad Doueiri was arrested last year for filming parts of a 2013 movie in Israel (AFP)

On Tuesday, The Insult became the first Lebanese film to be nominated for an Oscar. It was listed among five finalists for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.

The film’s director Ziad Doueiri was detained at Beirut airport last year, shortly before the movie’s premiere in September. He was accused of violating Lebanese law for filming parts of his 2013 film The Attack in Israel.

His arrest was decried as an assault on art and free speech. The director was released the next day without charges.

Having been detained in Lebanon for shooting his film in Israel, this Director's film 'The Insult' has now been nominated for an Oscar pic.twitter.com/jry8F5eJly

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 23, 2018

Doueiri is a dual citizen of Lebanon and France, and Lebanese law prohibits visiting “enemy territory”. Despite a UN mandated ceasefire between the two countries in 2006, Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war.

The film centres around the struggle of a Lebanese Christian right wing ideologue and his legal battle against a Palestinian refugee. It revisits painful events of the country’s 15-year civil war, demonstrating their current impact on people who lived through them.

The Lebanese civil war pitted several factions and proxy powers against each other but mainly started as a confrontation between right wing Christians and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

Congratulations Lebanon for the first Lebanese movie ever nominated for an Oscar!

Good luck for The Insult by Ziad Doueiri.#Oscars#Lebanonpic.twitter.com/fxHq6fWA4u

— Nicolas Sehnaoui (@NicolaSehnaoui) January 23, 2018

The film has been well-received internationally with a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website for film reviews. Last year, it received an award at the Venice Film Festival.

But The Insult has been slammed by some critics in Lebanon and the Arab world, who view it as over sympathetic to right wing Christian ideology, which they hold responsible for atrocities against Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims during the civil war.

Big news for Lebanese and Arab cinema: #Lebanon's THE INSULT by Ziad Doueiri is now the first Lebanese film to ever make the Foreign Language #Oscar shortlist! #WeLoveArabFilmpic.twitter.com/YuiET5xRbZ

— Arab Film Institute (@arabfilminst) January 23, 2018

The movie was dropped from the Ramallah Film Festival in the West Bank in October despite starring Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha. Activists had called for boycotting Doueiri for previously filming in Israel.

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