The Kite

The Kite

2003. Lebanon. Directed by Randa Chahal Sabbag. With Flavia Béchara, Ziad Rahbani, Randa Asmar. A high-profile release that won prizes at several festivals and was Lebanon’s 2004 Academy Award entry, The Kite is rich in subtly rendered comedy and tragedy. With a melancholy mood heightened by its poetic widescreen compositions, the film tells the story of a young woman married off to a stranger in spite of her love for another. This family drama is played out on a politically tense, highly public stage; the Druze community in which it takes place is divided by the Lebanon-Israel border, where people on either side communicate by yelling through loudspeakers. In Arabic; English subtitles. 80 min.