Solid acting drives film home

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This article was published 31/03/2018 (3097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“This didn’t all start over a rain gutter,” says one of the judges in a legal case in which a Lebanese Christian is suing a Palestinian refugee, leading to an ugly dispute that threatens to ignite the courtroom and possibly the whole city of Beirut.

The conflict might have been kicked off by a petty personal argument over a leaking drainpipe, but as this potent, worthy but sometimes heavy-handed drama suggests, the personal can be political in the Middle East. And vice versa. In The Insult (in Arabic, with subtitles), that one small balcony with the defective drain expands to take in the whole of Lebanon (and eventually nearby Jordan and Israel), while reaching back into decades of difficult history.

Garage owner Tony Hanna (Adel Karam), an ardent supporter of a right-wing Christian party, is a man of stubborn integrity and hotheaded, explosive anger. Yasser Abdallah Salameh (Kamel El Basha), a Palestinian construction foreman, is a man of stubborn integrity and quiet, seething anger. As the drainpipe situation escalates, neither man will stand down.

A hateful insult is hurled. A punch is thrown. The attempted legal resolution just extends the fight, as the case inflames the media and divides the volatile crowds gathered outside the courtroom.

Writer-director Ziad Doueiri (The Attack, West Beirut) and co-scripter Joelle Touma tackle some serious subject matter with toughness and honesty. There’s a rawness to the film’s dialogue — the script doesn’t shy away from one side saying the worst things they can think of about the other side — and an urgent realness to its good-looking cinematography.

The performances are strong, with Karam embodying bristling masculinity, while the more watchful El Basha suggests bruised and weary pride.

But while the film has an edgy surface, the narrative is neatly diagrammed, almost too symmetrical in the way it sets up and then (partially, tentatively) resolves its conflict.

The script keeps pointing to the ways in which these warring men are very much alike. Both are unshakable perfectionists in their work. Both have coolheaded wives who urge them to turn aside from their anger. Both have buried secrets, and — as the court case eventually demonstrates — both have lived through terrible wartime traumas.

Even the men’s lawyers share a bond. Tony’s advocate, a magnificently hammy and wily courtroom veteran (Camille Salameh), and Yasser’s defender, a young and idealistic leftie crusader (Diamand Bou Abboud), just happen to be father and daughter, a plot device that has more than a touch of Hollywood hoke.

Underneath all these sensational twists and sudden, Perry Mason-style courtroom revelations, however, director Doueiri manages to pack a documentarian’s amount of information into a dramatic story. The Insult is occasionally contrived but always illuminating.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.c