Opinion: "Et Maintenant on va où?" A Lebanese setting for a non-Lebanese image (Translated from French) By Dr. Frédéric A. Zakhia - 24 October 2011 - Translated from the French: K.J.Mortimer

We were several friends who went together to see Et Maintenant on va où? the latest movie of the Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Usually, I don’t accept to watch films about the war in Lebanon since, as one who belongs to this generation (just like the maker of the film) habitually known in Lebanon as the “war generation”, I find the subject already exhausted. It not only awakes unhappy memories which are far from amusing, but it is also a subject that most Lebanese want neither to talk about nor hear about. In our country, we need some real comedies to amuse us. On the other hand, I also find it my duty to encourage Lebanese production.

If this theme is welcomed in Western societies, and particularly in French society, which is interested in other cultures, we do not wish to make our suffering a source of amusement for others. Confronting those secular societies which find reasons for laughter in those films which make fun of religiosity or of religion itself, the author should consider first and foremost the religious sensibility of her own people and of the country of her birth, in order to keep this production truly Lebanese, since it is about Lebanese people and is supposed to reflect Lebanese society. The frame of this film is Lebanese but the picture it gives cannot be classified.

The fact is that despite the secularization or tolerant attitude of many individuals, our Lebanese society remains profoundly religious. A practicing Lebanese Christian feels badly hurt when for example he watches a woman who has lost her son throw earth on a statue of the Virgin Mary as an act of reprisal, or hides her dead son in a well without any religious funeral rites. Lebanese religious tradition shows clearly that no believing mother of a child could act in such a way. What is more, the supposed apparitions of Saint Joseph are a real insult to the Lebanese Christian public. Such things are not, and cannot be, taken as comic in our society. Besides, the chain of events (throwing earth on the statue of the Blessed Virgin, or destroying it, or breaking the Cross) tend to make a mockery of Christian religious sentiment more than of Islamic symbols, thus abusing the broadmindedness of Christians.

As for the form, I noticed that the some of the English subtitles did not correspond to anything that was said (concerning the Cross or the Crescent).

Finally, as Danielle Arbid, among others, ventured before Nadine Labaki to speak about the Lebanese war, these documentaries provoked an uproar among young expatriate Lebanese, despite the prizes and rewards they reaped and their warm welcome in the West. This was not to deny the quality of these films and documentaries, but everybody wished to turn the unhappy page of the war and to forget the dismal past so as to build a happier and more peaceful future.

I am far from wishing to discourage people; I hail the effort of the producer and his team to realize this project. I particularly appreciate the successful shots taken during the night, a work that we must admire; the idea would have been original in every meaning of the term if it had not affected a still open wound.

This “comic” Utopia perhaps ends with something realistic, the arrival at the cemetery with the coffin, when what has united the village people once again divides them: in which cemetery should they place the deceased Christian? This goes to show that the question of religion and sectarianism remains a serious matter in Lebanon, a very serious one, coming up everywhere while even being taboo. But this question cannot be resolved by denying one’s own religion or taking on somebody else’s religion as is suggested in this film, but rather by accepting and respecting other people as they are. The Lebanese politico-social model is far from perfect but at least it allows each sect the right to be represented both on the political scene and in the administration of the country. This model can serve in any country that is still backward with their humanity and where minorities are still victims of racial or religious discrimination.