Two men, both scarred by the Lebanese Civil War, escalate an insult into a national courtroom drama.
This is why mental health services should be paid for by national funds. And also why toxic masculinity should be stamped out. I can't even write about this right now. There are so many parallels between Christian nationalists as portrayed in Lebanon and the ones here in America right now. The movie wants you to have sympathy for Tony (Adel Karam), a racist espousing genocidal ideals, because he had a traumatic experience in childhood that he repressed. Nope. Your personal trauma doesn't give you the right to say other people shouldn't be allowed to exist. It also doesn't shield you from the consequences of saying that in public.
There's a lot in the movie about who gets to call themselves a victim and that's also bullshit. You can be a victim while also being a perpetrator to someone else. It's not either/or. And there's zero point in trying to compare traumas. It's all subjective. What is deeply hurtful to one person might be shrugged off by another. That doesn't invalidate that person's feelings. But it also doesn't mean they can retaliate based on their hurt.
Therapy. Therapy for everybody. And communications classes. If you allow your country to be torn apart from the inside, the least you can do is provide fucking counseling for people afterwards.
The Insult is streaming on Kanopy.
No comments:
Post a Comment