Great film

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2013)

One achievement of this excellent film is that it makes you think about war. It makes you think that many people who migrate to the West have complicated personal stories that influence their lives today. And that what we see on the TV news is a woefully inadequate representation of the actual human impact of war. The intelligent woman at the centre of the film had the bad luck to have been born into a brutal, inhuman time in history, even into a brutal family, and she tries her best to survive. You've got to empathise with her on some level. The film has many twists and turns in its plot, and even as I left the cinema I wasn't sure I'd understood which side she was on at a particular time and why she responded as she did. It made me want to know more about Lebanese history. It's a beautifully made film and well recommended.