Nicholas Malik

A great and greatly made movie. The golden era of Lebanon, post WWII until the early sixties, is a marvelous stretch of about 20 years of Lebanon greatness. Unrest, which started shortly before the Intra Bank bankruptcy in 1966, and the five minute war on June 5 1967 (the war lasted 5 days but we were defeated 5 minutes after our enemy bombed all of Egypt’s fighter airplanes the first second after the war started), put the end to peaceful and great living in Lebanon even though the enemy did not attack Lebanon in 1967. Turmoil started after the June 5, 1967 war. Turmoil has not stopped yet. Our enemy has kept Lebanon over the burner and still intends to keep us over the burner. The movie shows the horrors inflicted by a cowardly brutal devil. Thousands of women and kids were killed by the enemy in 2006. Most homes were demolished in the south. The civilian international airport and main electric power plant were bombed and the plant was demolished; a building housing 116 mentally challenged minors was bombed and all kids were killed. I call this cowardly brutality. Nick

The movie is a good one; it focuses on hostility of Arab countries to the U.S. It is a fairly fair movie in that regards, however, that much of an emphasis is too much exaggerated and is not warranted. I am aware that not all Arabs are in love with America but quite many Arabs, deep down, will love to come here. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the movie’s fairness. It is worth watching. Nick Malik

I liked this movie and I enjoyed watching it. The main character and the character’s mom and dad were genuinely great… very convincing. I was born in ‘West Beirut’ (Mousseitbeh) and was raised there. We never had trouble with Muslims not liking Christians and Visa Versa. In my neighborhood, people of all religions and sects lived amicably with each other. My Sunni neighbor lady Imm Issam hugged me dearly each time I came home for Xmas from my boarding school in Brummana. She will say Moslim prayers when hugging me and I am a Greek Orthodox Christian. There was no East and West Beirut. It always has been one lovely and crazy Beirut. Just Beirut. I can relate to this movie. It is genuine and well made. I liked the baker Hassan, not a great actor, but a lovely and courageous Lebanese. Any animosity among the Lebanese people is caused and encouraged by Lebanon’s enemies. I laughed hard when the two friends paraded with Kamal’s supporters even though they had no idea who Kamal was. This is just a genius movie making. I had my first Martel brandy at the Zaitouneh. The movie brought back the sweet golden memories of Beirut.. it’s east and west and north and south. Nick Malik