Tales of the Wounded Land

For sixteen months, Abbas Fahdel films southern Lebanon, first under Israeli bombardment, and then at the time of the return. With his wife, the artist Nour Ballouk, and their little girl, he finds gutted villages, ruined houses, neighbors, the dead, charred trees. But "Tales of the Wounded Land" refuses spectacular images of war. It lingers on what it leaves behind: landscapes that have become foreign, displaced objects, daily gestures that resume, children who continue to play. Fragments of poems written during the attacks accompany this family diary where the intimate constantly blends with History. After "Homeland: Iraq Year Zero", Fahdel films once again as closely as possible to his own, with a simple attention to beings and places. As if filming allowed, if not to repair, at least to retain something of what war seeks to erase.