The affront
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The affront |
| Original title | L'insulte |
| Country of production | Lebanon |
| original language | Arabic |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 112 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ziad Doueiri |
| script | Ziad Doueiri, Joelle Touma |
| production |
Rachid Bouchareb , Jean Bréhat , Julie Gayet , Antoun Sehnaoui , Nadia Turincev |
| music | Eric Neveux |
| camera | Tommaso Fiorilli |
| cut | Dominique Marcombe |
| occupation | |
| |
The affront is a Drama and Thriller by Ziad Doueiri from the year 2017 . The film opened in German cinemas on October 25, 2018.
action
Tony Hanna and his pregnant wife Shirine live on a side street in Beirut where construction is taking place on the houses. As Tony is watering the flowers on his balcony, water runs out of a pipe onto the construction manager of the work, Yasser Abdallah Salameh. He instructs his workers to remove the pipe and instead lay a line to the downpipe. This happens immediately, but Tony is not satisfied with it. He smashes the new pipe with a hammer and is then cursed by Yasser as a "bastard". Tony demands an apology from Yasser, which he refuses to give.
The building contractor Talal wants to smooth things over between the Lebanese Tony and the Palestinian Yasser and visits Tony's wife with a box of chocolates. Tony brings the chocolates back immediately because he wants an apology. Talal persuades Yasser to take him to Tony's garage so that he can apologize. The conversation escalates and Tony says: “ Ariel Sharon should have eliminated you Palestinians !” Yasser strikes and Tony comes to the hospital with two broken ribs.
Tony is now filing a lawsuit against Yasser. Because neither Yasser nor Tony want to repeat what Tony said about Sharon, the judge dismisses the case on inconclusive evidence. Tony angrily shouts that the judge is corrupt and biased. He is then removed from the courtroom, but wants to appeal. At night he collapses while working in his workshop. When Shirine takes him to the hospital, she has a premature birth and the child is placed in an incubator. Tony's case is on appeal, with Yasser facing manslaughter charges if the child does not survive.
Wajdi Wehbe becomes Tony's new lawyer , while Wajdi's own daughter, Nadine Wehbe, takes on Yasser's case. This time, Tony's comments on Sharon are being brought to the court because of the emotional distress that triggered the attack; Yasser's defense attorney alleges that Shirine has already suffered two miscarriages. The statements in the courtroom bring back memories of the Lebanese civil war and lead to clashes between Christians and Muslims on the street. Wajdi's defense strategy brings Tony close to Zionism and he receives death threats. Wajdi also describes Tony's comments as private; they merely expressed a "wish". He argues that this is not slander, but freedom of thought .
The Lebanese President also intervenes and invites the two opponents to talk. Tony tells the President there is nothing he can do; he just wanted an excuse himself. After the conversation, both get into their cars in front of the palace, but Yasser's car won't start. Tony resolves the problem quickly.
Background research by Wajdi's staff reveals that Tony was born in Damour in 1970 and had to flee with his family in January 1976 as a result of the Damour massacre when the city fell to units of Muslim militias and the PLO . Tony collapses when Wajdi shows documentary footage of the events in the courtroom.
Yasser and Tony later meet in front of Tony's workshop and when Yasser provocatively says that the suffering of Christians in the civil war was little compared to the Palestinians, Tony hits him and Yasser apologizes. Shirine's and Tony's child is recovering.
In court, the judges found Yasser not guilty of the attack.
reception
“The affront” goes [...] far beyond the concrete events and is at the same time a brand new parable. Without a pedagogical whip, Doueiri exposes the dangerous mechanics of escalation spirals and shows how (religious) fanaticism, superficial generalizations, prejudices and discourses driven by emotions can become a truly explosive mixture. How universal this domino effect is can unfortunately be seen almost every day in the media. The fact that it doesn't seem to matter who wins the case in “The Affront” is great cinema. And at the same time there is the sad realization that Doueiri's film is one step ahead of reality thanks to its imagination. "
Web links
- The affront to the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film distribution website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Critique of The Affront. In: epd film. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .