The Insult

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Directed by: Ziad Doueiri
Written by: Ziad Doueiri & Joelle Touma
Starring: Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh, Diamond Bou Abboud, Rita Hayek, Christine Choueiri, Julia Kassar
Drama - 112 min          Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Feb 2018
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Lebanon may be an example of that rare country whose present is more precarious and uncertain than its past.  Its myriad ethnicities, religions, and militias are cobbled together into precarious coalitions and ad hoc compromises which could all be undone due to the wrong syllable ah-chooed during a sneeze.  In Lebanon, a small thing can become a big thing.  The Middle East is always a pot ready to boil over and take a couple hundred people with it.  Director and co-writer Ziad Doueiri crafts a more than believable example about how a dispute over a balcony gutter, a curse word, and a loaded genocidal wish could re-spark a not so dormant civil war.

The Insult is a journey through the lives of a handful of people representing a violent and tragic history loaded with politics.  It is a parallel trek between two men in particular who are much closer and more similar than they realize.  Lebanese Christian car mechanic, Tony Hanna (Adel Karam), and Palestinian refugee, Yasser Salameh (Kamel El Basha), each hold fast to an innate hatred of specific groups of people.  However, these two ordinary men are about to be put under extraordinary circumstances.  By the end, to reach any possibility of justice, dignity, and inner peace, they must confront severe internal obstacles of blind certainty and ingrained beliefs.
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Doueiri disturbs the status quo with his films.  For his 2012 film, The Attack, he shot in Israel for authenticity.  This broke numerous laws in Lebanon, got Doneiri labelled a Zionist - a name a Lebanese citizen really does not want to be called - and gets his films banned or boycotted in his home country.  A big part of the Lebanese Muslim population boycotted The Insult.  Doueiri committed a political sin by admitting the Palestinians do not own exclusivity on suffering; victimhood is not just for them.  When one stirs up fears and hatred not even hidden beneath the surface, but already hanging around outside on the street, he creates opposition to himself as a filmmaker and his creations.
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Tony Hanna wants justice because he feels something has been taken away and this is a universal theme.  The Palestinians, represented by Yasser, believe there will never be justice for their nationality because Palestinians do not receive such graces.  The Lebanese Christians are certain the Palestinians get all of society’s extra breaks and escape their crimes under the law because they hold up persecution as a shield and an excuse.  It reminds me of how some right-wing conservatives in America believe immigrants get all the breaks, extra rights, and access to special government programs ordinary citizens would never get.
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The Insult succeeds because it does not feel contrived; it is organic.  Watching these two men evolve from hatred into something bordering on acknowledgement is believable.  They are both lower-middle class and they embark on a course of action much bigger than themselves.  They both carry an uncertain sense of regret that they are even on this course as it gets out of their hands.  A neighborhood dispute, which happens everyday all over the world, winds its way toward a civil war.  However, the accusations and acrimony are not fought outside in alleyways, but inside in a familiar cinematic setting - the courtroom drama.
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In a courtroom, the players and story can search for that elusive fairness and even reexamine the entire system of what makes up Lebanon.  In this arena, the two sides can fight face-to-face, a proximity they would not have if they were outside fighting behind rifle scopes and mortar tubes.  Doueiri is talking about things people do not want to talk about.  He breaks taboos, perhaps the ultimate one in the Middle East, and says the Palestinian cause is up for questioning; it is no longer sacred.  He dares to analyze the other side, he crosses borders, and he listens to the enemy’s point of view.  In real life, he is a Sunni Muslim who married a Lebanese Christian, Joelle Touma, who he co-wrote the script with.  They are now divorced, but they can still work together.  They discovered there is not one truth, but many truths - a fact often ignored in the one of the world’s most troubled regions. ​
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