Tayyara min Waraq wins praise, but draws criticism for missing details

The only movie recording occupation could have been more accurate

BEIRUT - Kamal Sanjakdar

December 2003

Lovers of Lebanese movies had the chance in November to watch the recent Lebanese movie co-produced with European funding and direct by Randa Chahhal.

In Tayyara min Waraq, Chahhal portrays the life of presumably south Lebanese villagers living under Israeli occupation.

In a Lebanese male-dominant society, the Druze family of 15 year-old Randa (Flavia Beshara) arranges for the marriage of her cousin.

The problem is that the groom lives under Israeli occupation, in what used to be called as the Security Zone in south Lebanon, controlled by the pro-Israeli South Lebanese Army militia between 1978 and until liberation in 2000.

The divided Druze family was forced to live on the two sides of a half-occupied southern village, presumably Deir Mimas. The movie focuses on the means of communication Druzes, especially in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, are forced to communicate through a megaphone.

As events unfolded, the two parts of the family exchanged video tapes about their to-be-wed children. Women communicated through megaphones and men held a session in which they approved the marriage.

The family living on the Lebanese-controlled half of the village then arranged to allow for the departure of their daughter to the Israeli-controlled side of the village. After a symbolic wedding celebration, the bride took the trip to meet her new husband/cousin in the occupied part of the village.

Although the bride and the groom come from similar Druze conservative backgrounds, the two teenagers were depicted as if they came from two different worlds namely the East and the West, Arabs and Israel.

The movie has the advantage of being one of the few Lebanese films, if not the only one, recording the occupation in under the Security Zone in south Lebanon. Yet the movie has a number of drawbacks especially visible for its Lebanese audience.

The first striking mistake in the movie is the large amount of factual mistakes.

During the years of occupation in Lebanon, the Lebanese army was never deployed to the south and no Druze families communicated through megaphones.

 Deir Mimas is not known for being the hometown of any Druze families in the first place.

Residents could cross from the occupied zone to the liberated areas and vice-versa without the need of a pass from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force. On the contrary, such details are more relevant to the divided Golan Heights than they are to South Lebanon.

In the movie, when Israeli soldiers patrolled the border, they would see signs on which the word Lebanese Borders was written in Arabic and English. When the bride was taking her walk to the occupied zone, she could read the word Crossing Point in English, Arabic and Hebrew (Me’ver).

Apart from factual accuracy, Chahhal failed to adequately portray the different daily lives under the two different authorities.

In the movie, Druze living on the Israeli side appear swimming in a pool and playing videogames while those in Lebanon only play with kites.

While there is no doubt that the movie is a must-see one, it might be more appealing for foreign audiences since it highlights all the social problems that westerners might be looking for in an oriental society.

Sects in general are a subject of interest for foreigners. The traditional outfits for Druze females and the long white beards constitute a curiosity.

Issues of marriage, women’s rights and adulthood are also what the West is mostly keen to understand about the East. Sexual education, family relations and youth integration in eastern societies are what such audiences would like to learn about most.

The movie has also other features that would appeal to the foreign audience such as some imaginary, and rather surreal scenes, towards the end of the movie.

The bride, after failing to wed her packaged match, went back home. Reasons behind the marriage’s failure were in principal due to the girl’s falling in love with an Israeli Druze sentry patrolling the border.

The silent relationship between the soldier and the young teenager was, to say the least, cold. Chahhal added some “seduction scenes” to depict love between the two, but when the two lovers met, they did not even hug or kiss and restricted themselves to a non-content dialogue.

Before reaching her lover, Beshara had to cross a minefield. A mine did blow up, but Beshara survived and the next thing we know is her standing behind her lover in his patrolling tower.

The movie’s best asset, however, was the frequent appearance of popular musician Ziad Rahbani whose role could be hardly defined.

Acting as a senior SLA militia soldier, Rahbani’s scene were not very much integrated into the movie, but were a success by themselves.

Those who are familiar with the circumstances of the occupation period in Lebanon, however, know that the production could have provided more accurate data or at least put events in their historical context.

Overall, the production was one the break through movies in the Lebanese cinema after West Beirut and some similar films. The director and actors were Lebanese, it treated a Lebanese subject matter and disclosed messages that depicted socioeconomic and political hardships that oriental societies suffer from.