A Powerful Social Tour De Force - 8/10

by Mohamad Khatib

   "We are the victims of our own and others' circumstances", a statement and theme made clear, concise, and impactful in Ziad Doueiri's social drama " The Insult". This is a beautifully shot, directed, and well-written piece of psychological and social conflict between two people driven to insult and harm by their scarred pasts. Tony Hanna(Adel Karam) is a Lebanese man fuelled with hatred and obssession, being the more extroverted character as opposed to the introverted Yasser Salameh(Kamel AlBasha), a hardworking Palestinian, succumbing to the humiliations being thrown at him on a daily basis for being a refugee working illegally in Lebanon.

   Kamil Salemeh(Wajdi Wehbe) mesmerises us with his devil's advocate performance as Tony's lawyer, using him for his own personal agenda. The rest of the main cast is nothing short of spectacular not to mention Rita Hayek's performance as Tony's wife who addresses her husband's psychological rage and hatred and tries to tame it, in addition to Tony's boss (Talal Jurdi) mediating attempts to rectify the damage or at least lessen it, but to no avail; however, there are some rather weak or underwritten characters such as Yasser's wife Manal(Christine Choueiri) who did not really have any effect on the plot and Wajdi's daughter, Nadine Wehbe(Diamand Bou Abboud) who carried the weight of her role with sincerity and heart yet we do not really learn anything about her except that she took Yasser's case because she did not feel the Palestinians are always rightfully heard and represented. Even the revelation that she turned out to be Wajdi's daughter did not push the story forward or influence it in any way. It would have been better to maybe use the rivalry between Wajdi and Nadine to learn more about their respective characters.

   Along the way, Tony and Yasser fall victims to their own wounded pasts and their clash overwhelms and swallows them whole in a big tide of chaos and paranoia. While being victims of opposing views you can't help but notice that this is also a story about two people who have more in common with each other than you would expect, as family men and sincere hardworkers, clearly indicated in their honest ways of carrying out their jobs, Yasser in his rebellious way of choosing to use a German crane and regarding all Chinese products as cheap which parallels very smartly with the scene where we are introduced to Tony, a car mechanic, explaining to a customer about a chinese autopart fakely disguised as a German one.

   Some elements of the story were a bit rushed like the scenes of riots and violence but they are well compensated by the dramatic suspense and tension of the court scenes and the superb performances of the main cast. "The Insult" is a sincere and in-your-face hard and raw exploration of the disastrous,deceptive, and destructive nature of politics and bloody violent pasts.

   I sincerely applaud this spectacular piece of cinematic artistry and i am proud that it was made by a great filmmaker from Lebanon ....a small country with huge talents.

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