speeddrunner This was a good movie, but it could've been better. A lot of people have written glowing reviews about how much they liked it, while some people have given it 1/10 because of unreasonable issues and grievances.I have a few issues with the film and I'll focus on that.The biggest issue is the lack of consistent tone. Is it a drama? A comedy? A tragedy? There are dramas with plenty of jokes, there are tragicomedies, there are black comedies, but this one doesn't feel like any of the above. I'm a huge fan of Kusturica (Underground is my fave of all time), but although this reminds me of it at times (the attempt at noise in the cinema) at other times it's just inconsistent and weird. The funny parts are not that funny, more amusing than hilarious, but tragic parts are very sad, too sad to fit with the others. The musical parts are very odd and seem out of place. The part with the Russians is also given too much time, as if that's the main part of the film, even though it's just a loose end and is forgotten. The beginning of the conflict has a very intelligently-written domino effect of escalation, but later schemes have no consequence and are forgotten. The Russians just go home. The tape recorder is forgotten. The hidden guns are forgotten. Chekhov's gun means nothing here.The story didn't know which direction it wanted to go to.The ending scene captures this idea very well. They don't know where to bury the boy and are stuck in the middle, between two sections of the cemetery. The movie doesn't commit to a style and doesn't commit to an ending. They could've buried him in the middle, signifying a bridge between the two faiths. The mother could've insisted on burying him deep on the Muslim side, stubbornly continuing to play the role of switching sides. They could've buried him in another cemetery, a new one for people that don't want to be a part of this conflict even in death. Cremation and spread the ashes... anything.It's too late to start listing possibilities, but there are so many things that this movie could've done but didn't for lack of ideas."There's taking a side and there's taking a stance" but this movie takes neither.

Qahtan Jasim let's be honest, it wasn't realistic, but it was like a beautiful dream.In conflict areas, we usually don't have good intended, perceptive, rationally thinking people (not even the women), and the clergy, in real life, they broil the fire of hatred and sectarian violence, not quench it. I'm an atheist, so no wonder I liked the movie, but if I had watched it a few years earlier when I was devoutly religious, I would've hated it most probably. Obviously the message the movie is trying to deliver is that we should forget about our differences and live in harmony with other religions (and for that Nadine, I respect you), but I think the message is incomplete, in order to forget the differences "for real" and rise above all the bigotry and hatred religion breeds, YOU HAVE TO QUIT RELIGION.Other than that, the movie is laughing, innocent comedy, beautiful simple village with adorable people...etc, I could keep talking positively for hours... but I have to say: I was touched.I wish one day on this planet, there will be no more "us and them" because we are fellow inhabitants of the Earth and we share both splendor and travail on it.Oh... And... Nadine... : I love you.

gradyharp Lebanese actress/writer/director/producer offers on of the most poignant statement about the struggle in the Middle East, a struggle between Christians and Muslims for power and dominance -a struggle that while real is the most preposterous argument tow 'religions' based on love could have. Would that more people would watch this film there would probably be a better understanding of why the ongoing wars there are likely to never be settled.The story as written by the gifted Nadine Labaki (who also stars and directs) is that of a little village in Lebanon that is half Christian and half Muslim: the church and the mosque stand side by side and the morning bells from the church play at the same time the Muezzin calls the Muslims to prayer, the cemetery is divided between the Muslim side and the Christian side, etc. The balance between the two factions is tenuous and the men are always looking for ways to start war among themselves. The women of the town try everything to ease the tension - create a café, import Ukrainian belly dancers to distract them, ply them with hashish-laden foods. But when a stray bullet kills the male child of one of the mothers the division stops, the mother hides the slaughtered child, attempting to keep peace until silly arguments among the youths result in the discovery that the endless bilateral taunting has resulted in a tragedy. At the end of the film the narrator speaks: 'My story is now ending for all those who were listening, of a town where peace was found while fighting continued all around. Of men who slept so deep and woke to find new peace. Of women still in black, who fought with flowers and prayers instead of guns and flares, and protect their children. Destiny then drove them to find a new way' - to which the pallbearers ask of the divided cemetery, 'Where do we go now?'Labaki understands the need for comic relief in a story of this nature and she provides that in some very warmly funny ways - the women walking along in groups sing and do a choreographic step that makes us smile. But the power of the film is the message of compassion and the desperate need to re-think the omnipresent crises that tear the Middle East apart. And it is quite proper to find similarities in every part of society. Grady Harp

eloy_lb This is the worst Lebanese movie I've ever seen. It tells the tale of a mixed Christian Muslim village during the war in Lebanon and how the women from the village did everything (including a mother shooting her son, go figure!) they could to prevent the ethnic war between Christians and Muslims to spread into their village. The idea by itself is not bad, but what I found unacceptable is that the symbols of Christianity where severely bashed in this movie and this could have been easily avoided so not to hurt the feelings of Christian viewers. I'm no fanatic by any means, but the scenes of Virgin Mary statue being demolished and had dirt thrown at it is not a good thing at all. By wanting to make a symbol movie, Labaki treated the symbols of Christianity with no respect. I'm with protecting the symbols of all religions, but I wonder why only the Christian symbols where treated this way in this movie and not also the Muslim symbols? I think that Labaki didn't dare to do this because of the reaction of the Muslim community and this is something that I highly respect in Muslims. I hope that Christians will wake up soon and treat and defend their symbols like Muslims do. One other thing I found ridiculous in this movie is the opening dance of the women, I guess Labaki wanted to show the harmony between them, but it was ridiculous.