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                 Lebanese Fable Follows Female Fight For Peace

   by Alan Silverman

   In her first movie, "Caramel," Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki took
   viewers to a Beirut beauty parlor where women tried to deal with
   unending war. Her new film takes the theme to a dusty village, where
   Christian and Muslim women try to stop their men from killing each
   other.
   "Where Do We Go From Here?" opens with a group of black-clad women
   moving slowly from the village toward the cemetery. But, instead of
   walking, they sway and slide in a mystical dance, establishing the film
   as a fable which is not specifically set in the writer-director's
   native Lebanon.
   "The film is intended to be a sort of a fairy tale," Labaki says. "It
   starts with this voice saying, 'I'm going to tell you a story,' as if
   somebody was telling you 'Once upon a time, there was this village
   where women were going to bring peace.' But I didn't want to relate it
   to any specific place or time. I wanted it to be more universal,
   because this conflict I am talking about could have happened between
   two families, two brothers, two friends, even two football teams."
   To distract their men, the women will try anything from cooking special
   treats laced with hashish to importing a busload of European exotic
   dancers.
   While Labaki tells her story with humor, at its core is a serious issue
   she knows all too well.
   "In Lebanon, unfortunately, I don't know one person that hasn't lived a
   tragedy related to war," she says. "I am also fascinated and inspired
   by all the women in my family that have lost children during the war
   and that are still wearing black until now. I look at these women and I
   wonder, 'How do they do it?'"
   While the situations in the film are exaggerated, the filmmaker
   believes the women's hopes are real.

   IFRAME: [1]http://www.youtube.com/embed/2NO_8Nyk-qQ

   "Even if some people say it is too simplistic to say women are wiser
   than men, it is not the intention," she says. "I am just trying to
   [show]the scream of a woman and of a mother that says, 'We have had
   enough. Stop making wars for stupid reasons.'"
   Labaki also co-stars in the film, and at one point, her character says,
   "Do you think we are here just to mourn you? To wear black forever?Is
   that what being a man means?"
   The filmmaker's goal is to entertain, while also making her audience
   think.
   "Because I really, truly believe that cinema can be a very powerful,
   non-violent way of making a change," she says. "It sounds a bit naive,
   it sounds too innocent ...but I want to stay naive. I want to believe
   that this world could be a better place."
   Labaki wrote, directed and co-stars in "Where Do We Go Now." After
   playing to big audiences in the Middle East, the film is now reaching
   theaters in America and Europe.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/lebanese-fable-follows-female-fight-f
   or-peace/920052.html

References

   1. http://www.youtube.com/embed/2NO_8Nyk-qQ
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/lebanese-fable-follows-female-fight-for-peace/920052.html