The Insult

In Beirut, water running off a balcony falls on a Palestinian foreman working below. He repairs the pipe without permission, the owner of the flat breaks it, and insults are exchanged. When the demanded apology does not come, the matter goes to court. The case grows and the quarrel between two men reopens the whole past of the country. The subject is not who is right but both sides resting on real pain. The massacre the Christian flat-owner lived through as a child is real, and so is the foreman's history as a refugee; the film does not place one above the other, which is what makes the courtroom scenes unbearable. The form uses the classical courtroom drama and knows it. Witnesses, evidence and the reckoning between two lawyers push the viewer into taking a side, then shake that side loose. The production caused argument in Lebanon and there were calls to boycott the director, with Ziad Doueiri's earlier shooting in Israel raised against him. The film competed at Venice regardless, Kamel El Basha won the best actor prize, and it became the first Lebanese film nominated for an Oscar. Adel Karam plays the flat-owner. Who it is for: viewers who like political courtroom drama and films that look at Middle Eastern history. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear side; the film leaves both men right and wrong.