REPORT: The Lebanese cinema industry in 2012, between awards and censorship

To the beat of thunderous applause for Director Ziad Douwairy’s movie “Al Sadma” (The Shock) at the Marrakech International Film Festival, the Lebanese cinematic year came to an end. 2012 was a busy year despite the cat and mouse game which continued with great success between filmmakers and Lebanese censorship authorities.   

Douwairy won the grand prize at the festival in Morocco, but this did not erase the question marks surrounding his movie due to its controversial topic and due to the fact that he resorted to Israeli actors and shot some scenes in the occupied territories.        

Douweiry’s success was added to many other successful Lebanese movies including “Osset Sawani” (A matter of seconds) for Lebanese director Lara Saba. The film’s hero, young boy Alaa Hammoud won an award for best actor at the 39th session of the Brussels International Independent Film Festival.        

At a time when international film festivals were praising Lebanese movies, the Lebanese official censorship aka the General Security and unofficial censorship bodies were trying to narrow the margin of freedom, first with “Tannoura Maxi,” a movie for director Joe Bou Eid and second with “My last Valentine in Beirut” for director Salim el Turk.


For the full LBCI report, watch the video above