The Insult (2018)

ridiculous rating

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's not quite the blazing masterpiece the cover blurb, in English, would have you believe. And for English-speaking viewers, it has subtitles although I'm quite happy with that.The movie tackles a very, very, very touchy political and religious subject. I make no claim at all to fully understanding the issues which, I suspect, will make the movie difficult to understand for UK, EU and American viewers. There's not really a good guy or a bad guy, hence the difficulty, although quite early on it's obvious the writer - oh, gosh, who also directed! - is portraying Tony as the bad guy. And, indeed, he is what his opponent calls a 'f*cking pr*ck.' There's no getting away from that, in spite of subsequent revelations.The movie soon turns into a courtroom drama - which I love - and we see how easily the media manipulates the masses - and how ready they are to be manipulated.It's expertly directed and all the actors are superb.There is a slight 'turn' towards the end which doesn't really make sense but which provides a meagre optimism which the writer/oh boy/director obviously wanted. It's a plot device, not a characteristic of the character.The movie highlights the impossibilities of the situation and there really are no winners or losers. This will take generations to end, if indeed, it ever does. If you're not directly involved in the Middle East conflict, thank your lucky stars, Watching this movie is moderately interesting but it will solve nothing and probably inform you less.

Why do Lebanese movies leave us breathless? Or better question can be "why do movies from the Middle East / made by artists from the Middle East catch us so helplessly?" For years and years, for centuries and centuries, the soil of the Middle East has been harvested with beautiful sunshine and woes for every nation, every group, every society and every human on this soil. No need longer words, the movie 'The Insult' gives not the answer of why questions expecting for these woes but perfectly explains that the woes have been experienced equally, in the same manner, with the same style of tragedy for every human being in the Middle East. Is this movie for peace? More than this, it is for mutual understanding. Where is no empathy, there is no peace. The story evolves around a conflict between two men, one from Christian society of Lebanon and the other from Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. The court case expands the story and brings the audience into a spiral labeled with "hate and revenge". The insult is an excellent movie, an excellent shot directed by Ziyad Duveyri. All players in the movie amaze us with their performances. But the biggest part of our thanks must be delivered to Ziad Doueiri and Joelle Touma, who wrote the script. We, the audience, have watched many movies, TV series where the plot happens in a court. It is surely not easy to write a scenario, a realistic scenario on a court case. The weight of dialogues, the order of words, and the stream of the case, all need a delicate equilibrium. Very few of scenarios can reach the excellent level in realizing this tough mission. As for the Insult, the pen in the hand of Ziad Doueiri and Joelle Touma suceeds this magic without having any difficulty. There is also another success in the movie, it is to be unpredictable. For the experienced audience, the satisfaction of watching movie has been lesser nowadays because we predict / guess what comes the next. The Insult does not give this comfort to its audiences and keeps the audiences every moment inside the chamber of sweet excitement to watch a movie. The Insult is a movie rightly deserves the statement "must be watched"!

THE INSULT- 90% I was quite annoyed as i wanted to be the first Lebanese filmmaker to have an Oscar nomination but this movie is very well deserved for its nomination. The story and the way it was structured was absolutely perfect. The main two actors were very impressive which balanced other weaker actors. The cinematography is basic but effective. Adel Karam is quite the actor. The conflict in the story is very intriguing and Raw. I am so glad that a Lebanese movie was finally showcased in the world and I only dream of more to come. The history of Lebanon is so diverse and emotional that I am surprised that there aren't at least 40 movies related to all the conflicts lebanon had to withstand. The character development was shown in simple glimpses of certain situations. I was also happy that the director Ziad was not biased towards a certain character but was enriching and compassionate with both of them. The message in this movie is what was so astounding: "Despite out experience, ego, and pride, we are all in this together." A must see. Story wise and execution: 35/35 Acting: 21.6/25 Camera Work: 16.8/20 Sound: 16.1/20

The original Lebanese title, "Case No. 23," plays to the domestic audience because it emphasizes the courtroom drama. That's the personal story. The English translation works better for the international audience. The broader reference suggests the film's application to the whole of the warring Middle East. That society is so obsessed with honour that it is paralyzed by any "Insult," real or perceived. The Palestinians' shame at the Naqba, their failure to have prevented the creation of Israel, still prevents their negotiation of a peaceful coexistence. Israel hovers at the margin here, cited as the Arabs' common demon. Ariel Sharon is a curse. The Palestinians' ultimate insult is to declare the Christian Arab a Zionist - or at least, an enabler of Israel. The film's central insults are exchanged by a Christian Arab mechanic, Tony, and a Palestinian refugee, construction foreman Yasser. Their war starts small enough: Tony has an illegal pipe, which soaks Yasser. After insulting Tony Yasser repairs the pipe, which Tony smashes. Both heroes find our understanding. The Palestinian may be given the greater sympathy and he's played as a more thoughtful, flexible figure. But the revelation of the Christian Tony's past enhances his character too. Both men prove victims of their respective people's history. For both, their history tempts them to blame all their own failure son that unfortunate history and their old enemy. The two trial scenes are superb drama. In each the magistrate conducts an intensive, searching examination of the case. The first bogs down when neither the plaintiff nor the accused stoops to repeat the insult that prompted Yasser's attack. The second trial reaches the same conclusion but with more satisfactory effect. Indeed, the losing side now seems as satisfied with the verdict as the winner. That's because Tony has had his story told too, his anger and indignation explained in context. In the lawyers' summary, each makes the other's case. The antagonism turns into understanding. Apart from the trials, the principals' true reconciliation happens in two scenes outside the court, before the verdict. In the first Tony casually helps his enemy restart his car. In the second, Yasser baits Tony into punching him, so he goes into the court with his own aching pair of ribs. An eye for an eye, a rib for a rib. At the end, after all the screaming, indignation and violence, the reconciliation is the men's silent, long-distance lock of the eyes. Both heroes - and their respective gangs of followers - carry the weight of history. Both have suffered violence, prejudice, victimization, which their self-respect challenges them to remember. Both men suffer increasing and increasingly harsh consequences for their intransigence. The film's message is the need to acknowledge the historic conflict, to recognize the long period of inhumane abuse, but to turn the page, to move on, to find a way to make a mutually respectful peace. Again, the implication is that this message extends beyond the film's conflict between Palestinian and Christian to include the Jewish state as well. There's an additional frisson when Yasser's lawyer is revealed to be Tony's more famous lawyer's daughter. This generational tension replays the theme of moving on from the past. Both the woman lawyer and the woman chief judge tacitly personify the new Middle East, the emergence of empowered womanhood in that archly patriarchal society.