Lebanon by Samuel Maoz

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

Absolutely edge of your seat, provokes an emotional response (and claustrophobia if you are affected that way). The stage is the inside of an Israeli tank, 'clearing' an area in Lebanon in 1982. The confined space concentrates every word, only the gun sights revealing the world outside.

Great bit of filming, but awkward to watch, I do get claustrophobic. I'm tempted to compare it to Waltz with Bashir, but all that can be said is that one is an animation, while this is equally clever in the way it is filmed.

Winning the Leone d'Oro at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, nominated for ten Ophir awards including Best Film, it still has not enjoyed wide release. Has been called an anti-war movie, maybe, maybe not, but like the best war movies, it shows the effects of war on the people involved, not least those who are killed. The triggerman in the tank has never fired a shot in a real war situation before. Oil drips from the ceiling, the tiny space they're in is not clean and comfortable. And its dark. With subtitles.

Only 4 stars. Would have been more if it wasn't so hard to watch.