Product Details

• Actors: Nada Abou Farhat, Georges Khabbaz
• Directors: Philippe Aractingi
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Arabic
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Film Movement
• DVD Release Date: May 5, 2009
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001JH7F42
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,358 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Under The Bombs" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

UNDER THE BOMBS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of road movie . . ., August 1, 2009

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Under The Bombs (DVD)

Like Haskell Wexler filming "Medium Cool" during events on the streets of Chicago in 1968, French-Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi takes his cameras into war-torn South Lebanon, following two fictional characters in a very real world of bombed-out devastation. The result is a shocking and compelling docudrama, where nonprofessional supporting actors play themselves in the tenuous aftermath of 33 straight days of bombing and shelling. Never amateurish or clumsy, the film assumes the structure of a road movie, in which a taxi driver agrees to drive a distraught mother from Beirut to the village where her son has been living with her sister.

Leveled buildings line the roads, and shattered bridges prevent their progress. Suspense builds as a bond between the two characters grows, made especially poignant by the fact that one is Christian and the other Muslim. This film held me all the way to its galvanizing end. The performances of Nada Abou Farhat, as the woman, and Georges Khabbaz as the taxi driver are wonderful. One of the finest, most believable anti-war movies you're ever likely to see.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truthful movie about war, June 14, 2009

By 

H. Franco "For Peace" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Under The Bombs (DVD)

This is a movie that had to be done. Under the Bombs is unique. It can not be described as fiction because the background for the central plot is the cruel reality of another senseless war. It is not a documentary because two professional actors give a human face to the detached portrayal of war that we so frequently see in the news. Both Nada Abou Farhat as well as George Khabbaz provide an authentic performance of the two central characters in the movie. The story revolves around Zeina, a mother searching for her missing sister and son, and Toni, a taxi driver trying to make ends meet in the simultaneously war ravaged and beautiful country of Lebanon. The realism is complete. The burials, the cries, the anger, the explosions, the ruined houses, and the destroyed bridges are all real. The filming was done under unique duress and dangerous circumstances. There is no cosmetic effort to moderate the ugliness of the senseless destruction of civilian property and lives or attempts to exaggerate or otherwise distort the events occurring in real time. The only thing that one can not feel watching this film is the stench of death. What should not be expected from this movie are the glorification of war, the gore, and the sensationalism of combat that is almost invariably the norm prevailing in Hollywood. This movie does not lecture the audience. It does not trivialize pain or take sides with any political point-of-view. It shows war for what it is: a total defeat of the human spirit. Sadly, the plot of this movie is a mirror of what has been happening in too many parts in the world. Financial and economic devastation of the Western economies, millions of dead or displaced civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Israel, the USA (remember 9/11) and a myriad of less known places are a testament to humanity's inability to overcome its greed and addiction to war. A movie like this should be shown in every school around the world. Maybe the truthful scenes shown in 'Under the Bombs" could counterbalance the culture of death propagated by the militaristic and ultra-nationalistic establishments of so many countries in this little planet. I clearly remember diplomats and politicians in the awful summer of 2006 demanding a delay in the cease-fire so that a military "solution" could be reached. I hope (against all probability) that they will watch this movie. In one scene Zeina cries out: "haidi mish harbi", this is not my war. Maybe Zeina is wrong. The Israeli-Lebanese war of 2006, like all wars, is everybody's war.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a tense journey through a ravaged landscape, December 31, 2008

By 

Elish (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under The Bombs (DVD)

A mother's search for her son in the immediate aftermath of Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon provides a vehicle for the viewer to see the destruction and hear from the victims firsthand. For some reason I had expected a somewhat detached semi-documentary, but instead this film drags you into the horrors of a senseless war in the desperate efforts to locate the missing son and sister. It is compelling, haunting, and especially relevant now that Israel is doing the exact same thing in Gaza.
Doubtlessly speaking for many of those caught in the crossfires, the lead actor laments, "This is not MY war," as she seeks to understand the tragedy all around her.