Cinema of Lebanon - The War Years

The War Years

Despite the war, there was an "emergence of a new wave of Lebanese filmmakers – fostering, unusually, equal numbers of women and men". Some of the filmmakers who emerged during this period were "Maroun Baghdadi, Jocelyn Saab, Borhane Alaouié, Heiny Srour, Randa Shahal Sabbag" and Jean Chamoun. In the 1970s, film themes in Lebanon were concentrated around the political conflicts that the country was undergoing. Displacement was also a recurrent theme as evident in Borhane Alaouie's Beirut, the Encounter (1981). Films of this period were characterized by a lack of closure, reflective of the seemingly endless war at the time.

One of the most important directors to emerge during this period was Maroun Baghdadi. According to Lina Khatib, author of Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond, Baghdadi's films were "considered the cornerstone of Lebanese cinema". Maroun Baghdadi made Little Wars (film) with aid provided by the American filmmaker, Francis Coppola. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. The film also screened at New York Film Festival on October 2, 1982.

Documentaries by filmmakers like Jocelyn Saab who "adopted a mainly journalistic style" also developed rapidly and successfully during this period. Lebanese and Palestinian documentaries produced in Lebanon during the 1970s caused a surge of documentary production across the Arab world. These documentaries contributed to the development of feature film production in the early eighties.

Many filmmakers from this era, such as Jocelyn Saab, Jean Chamoun, Randa Chahal and Maroun Baghdadi, settled in France due to the prolonged conflict in Lebanon.

Beirut: The Last Home Movie is a 1987 documentary film that was directed by Jennifer Fox and shot on location at the historic Bustros mansion in Beirut. The documentary, which told the story of one of Lebanon’s wealthiest families, was awarded the Excellence In Cinematography Award and won the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival.

In addition to the wave of festival films and documentaries, a series of commercial films, mostly mimicking action B movies from Hollywood, were made in the early 1980s.