THE INSULT : Tuesday 2nd October 2018.

'THE INSULT' which I finally got around to seeing this week, some five weeks after its limited Australian release is an acclaimed Lebanese drama film which screened in the main competition at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this years Academy Awards. All up the film has garnered ten award wins and another fourteen nominations from around the festival circuit. Directed and Co-Written by Ziad Doueiri the film has so far taken less than US$2M but has received generally positive Reviews from Critics and audiences alike.

The film is set in present day Beirut. Tony Hannah (Adel Karan) is a Lebanese Christian living with his heavily pregnant wife Shirine (Rita Hayek) who is expecting their first child - a daughter. One day, building contractors engaged by the local government to remedy property defects around the city arrive in Tony's neighbourhood. Not wanting building contractors near his property when Shirine is there alone, Tony discovers contractors modifying the gutter on his balcony without his permission, to avoid water cascading down onto the street when it rains, or when he is hosing. Tony smashes the newly installed plastic guttering, to which the foreman Yasser Salameh (Kamal El Basha) calls Tony a 'fucking prick' from down on the street. Tony had previously recognised Yasser as a Palestinian refugee by his accent when he knocked on his apartment door seeking permission to fix the gutter in the first place, to which Tony declined very nonchalantly.

Tony watches anti-Palestinian propaganda, attends rallies, and is not backwards in coming forwards with his wishes for all Palestinians to leave his country. Although the balcony was in violation of building codes and the workers were fixing it by simply doing the job they are paid to do, Tony demands an apology for the 'fucking prick' remark from Yasser's manager and company. The employers bring Yasser to Tony's garage where he owns an auto mechanic workshop, to apologise in person, but when Tony states he wishes Israeli statesman Ariel Sharon had wiped out all Palestinians, Yasser punches him in the chest instead, breaking two ribs.

Tony is so enraged that he launches a lawsuit against Yasser, representing himself. However, upon questioning neither Yasser nor Tony can bring themselves to repeat what Tony said to Yasser about Sharon, and the judge dismisses the case on the grounds of inconclusive evidence. Angered, Tony shouts and is abusive towards the Judge saying that he is corrupt and biased, and is physically and forcibly removed from the courtroom but vows to appeal.

Earlier, when Tony was in hospital being treated for his two broken ribs, he was discharged on the basis that he should not work or lift anything heavy for at least eight weeks. One night being unable to sleep, he goes to work in his garage and lifts a heavy car battery. He collapses, and Shirine discovers him and helps pull him up and regain consciousness, but in the process brings on the early stages of childbirth. Coming round in the hospital, Tony learns that his wife gave birth by emergency Cesarean, but there are complications and the young child is placed on life support, allegedly due to contractions Shirine experienced when she pulled up her husband coupled with and emotional stress caused by Yasser's assault on her husband.

The case goes to retrial. Yasser risks conviction of manslaughter if Tony's baby dies. Wajdi Wehbe (Camille Salameh), a pro-Christian with memories of the Lebanese Civil War, and seemingly a prominent lawyer with a background of success, becomes Tony's new legal representative, while Wajdi's own daughter, Nadine Wehbe (Diamand Bou Abboud), who has far less memory of the war, and is fighting her first courtroom battle, takes Yasser's case. This time however, Tony's comments about Sharon are placed before the court, with the argument that emotional distress provoked the assault as well as Shirine's history of two prior miscarriages also being revealed.

The arguments in the courtroom go back and forth and inflame memories of the civil war, leading to clashes in the streets between Christians and Muslims. With Wajdi reinforcing the importance of Sharon, Tony is accused of Zionism and begins receiving death threats at home, and his garage is daubed with the Star of David. Wajdi tries to characterise Tony's comments as private and merely expressing a 'wish', arguing that this is not libellous but rather freedom of thought. The clashes on the streets continue to escalate with Police Riot Squad coming under attack. Tony and Yasser even have an audience with the Prime Minister who asks them both to turn the page and reconcile their differences to avoid a war erupting, but Tony declines his offer of mediation. Upon leaving the car park, Tony drives away in his old BMW, but Yasser's car won't start. Tony doubles back, and being the mechanic he is sticks his head under the bonnet, messes about with a couple of cables and in no time Yasser is fully mobile again. This simple gesture offers a glimmer of hope for the two warring factions.

Conducting further background research to underpin his case against Yasser, Wajdi is surprised to discover that Tony was born in Damour in 1970 and left in January 1976, a refugee of the Damour Massacre when the city fell to Muslim and left-wing militants with help from the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Tony had chosen not to reveal this to his own legal counsel, and breaks down with his father when Wajdi plays documentary footage of the event in the courtroom. Yasser and Tony later meet back at his garage, and when Yasser angrily remarks that Christian suffering in the civil war was minimal compared to the Palestinians', Tony punches him in the chest, and limping away Yasser apologises.

Back in court, the presiding Judge Colette Mansour (Julia Kassar) after hearing the closing comments from both sides, says that the panel of three Judges found this case really difficult, and that she nearly found both parties as equally guilty as the other. But in the end she had to go back to the root cause of the issue, and in doing so by two votes to one, finds Yasser not guilty. Tony's baby recovers, and in the closing scene we see him drive to Damour for the first time in forty years to visit the abandoned banana farm home of his childhood.

'The Insult' is a complex and thought provoking Middle Eastern political story that unwinds slowly around a familiar court room drama. What starts out as a simple heated exchange between two antagonists on either side of a political fence, soon escalates into street rioting and political unrest even involving the Prime Minister as we see a country divided and still licking its wounds from a war that ended over a generation ago. The performances are commendable and well grounded adding to the realism and the believability of the scenario that plays out both in and out of the courtroom. What Ziad Doueiri delivers here is film that explores the hostilities that exist in our modern society, a history lesson around a bitter conflict that unfolded in many of our lifetimes but which ultimately can be transcended by forgiveness, hope and understanding.

'The Insult' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-