The Insult

Directed by: Ziad Doueiri

2017 | Lebanon | 112 minutes

“The Insult, Lebanon’s official Oscar candidate, is about how a trivial, personal conflict explodes into something much larger, a drama that consumes a city and a nation. You could also put it the other way around. The film, directed by Ziad Doueiri (“West Beirut,” “The Attack”), reveals how large-scale social divisions infect even the most banal daily interactions.

Two guys have an argument about a pipe that drips water from an apartment terrace onto the street below. Harsh words are exchanged. An apology is demanded. A punch is thrown. And then, as the matter winds its way through two different courts, memories of past atrocities are dredged up, and Lebanon’s civil war, which officially ended in 1990, seems on the verge of erupting all over again.

A hopeful, happy movie about the Middle East may be too much to ask for right now. But “The Insult” is too energetic to be depressing. Sometimes it’s just too energetic, period. But there is something undeniably exhilarating about the film’s honest assessment of the never-ending conflict between decency and cruelty that rages in every nation, neighborhood and heart." - A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Nominee, Best Foreign Language Film, 90th Academy Awards