Ziad Doueiri, the writer/director of "West Beirut", one of the only Arab films to be released in mainstream American theaters, discusses his first feature. The themes of our conversation, which continued for three hours, are touched upon, a least a little, in the following interview. Nasri Zacharia, NYU, and Kris Percival, of Cowboy Booking International (the film's US distributor) were also present.
Annemarie Jacir: Could you talk a little about the process you went through to get this film made?
Ziad Doueiri: Former Prime Minister Hariri set up a fund that brought 15,000 Lebanese students from Lebanon to study around the world. And he paid 100% of their tuition. A very cool and ambitious program. So I contacted the Hariri Foundation since I knew they had a lot of money. At first the president of the Foundation read the script and said, "This is the most vulgar, profane film. We cannot represent the Lebanese community like this." He was American. And I said, "You know, I think you completely misunderstood it. You did not see between the lines, and once I make that film, I'm going to make sure the administration in Lebanon fires you". I was so upset. A few American producers liked it, although many said it was filthy and negative, but all of them said it wasn't a marketable thing. I had as hard a time in France as in Lebanon.
AJ: Why didn't the Lebanese Government initially like it?
ZD: No profit for them. Bad language. Even though the Lebanese curse all the time, they don't like to see it on TV. The Lebanese Government consider themselves to be a democratic and open society. But they have to stick to it. Instead they wanted to know what star was in it, what it was about, how much profit they could gain, etc.
But once I broke the ice with the Lebanese government, I had carte blanche. They gave me everything I needed and saved us half a million dollars. So in the end, they were a great, great help. But the money itself came from France. And it took me 2 or 3 years to find it.
AJ: Did you ever consider changing anything in the script in order to get funding?
ZD: Yeah. The French would say, "Make the mother French." And the Americans would say, "Make her American". They wanted Riyad to be married to "Julia" or something like that.
But I had to give it a try. I had to stick to what I wanted and not fake my story or sell it out completely for the sake of an American or French audience.
AJ: When did you decide that this particular story was a story that you had to tell?
ZD: Desert Storm. That was a war that really affected me. Because I felt like there was no justice. Saddam Hussein was a [monster] but I knew it was the innocent that gets bombed. Because I lived through it. You cannot throw bombs left and right and say this is "surgical warfare". Or it's "technical warfare". There's no such thing as technical warfare. I was very upset because I kept on feeling during the Gulf War that there is a better way to deal with this issue. If the Americans want to go and create "justice", a free country, because Iraq is a dictatorship, then they ought to do it in Israel. Then they have to give land back to the Palestinians. They have to.
NZ: Who was your target audience -- Arabs or Americans, or were you targeting both?
ZD: I was targeting mainly the American audience but from time to time I would say in case this film hits the Middle East it would be nice to draw the attention on to some other stuff. For example, the talk concerning Islamic fundamentalism between Omar and Tariq. These things could be understood by Americans but they are more understood by Middle Easterners because we are going through it. From time to time I thought that if I can strike a nerve, and upset some of the Middle Eastern, some of our, mentality, it would serve the film a purpose. But that was a shot in the dark because to tell you the truth I had no idea the film would be released in the Middle East.
AJ: And why gear this story towards an American audience?
ZD: A very difficult question. I know the answer. But there are many answers. Because I lived here 16 years of my life. Why do films like Cinema Paradiso,or Like Water For Chocolate do well? Let's not be pretentious. Let's put that aside. It's nice to break into Hollywood and to make a film for American audiences. American movie-making is still a landmark. I wanted to be able to show a story that people can understand and, at the same time, prove to myself you can make a film from a culture that has always been misunderstood. You can show that people from Middle East are not savage. They are handsome, beautiful people....the mother is beautiful, the father is beautiful, the kids too. And it's more than physical, it's deeper than that. You just have to look at them and you can see that.
AJ: Was the film released in the Middle East? And what was the response?
ZD: It was released, but not widely. The response has been excellent in Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, and Bahrain. In Jordan it was sold to a distributor and then returned. And in Syria it was censored. Jordan and Syria returned the film because they thought it had too much foul language. The Jordanian distributor who returned the film said, "my government thinks it encourages religious and sectarian hostilities." The stupid guy doesn't get it because it does exactly the opposite. If it does anything, it does the opposite. But this is dictatorship. This is fear.
Nasri Zacharia: I have a question...
ZD: Criticize me! I want you to criticize me...!
NZ: Well, I....
ZD: Tell me the problems with the film...look into it..but don't look too far! [laughs]
NZ: Some of the film critics mention the irony in the fact that you received French funding and at the same time you attack French cultural imperialism within the film. And at the same time your style is very French...Truffaut, Renoir...
ZD: The French did not take that personally at all. And it was done with a bit of arrogance but it was not vicious. When we see the teacher, she's not a bitch. You don't hate her. She's just a bit condescending. You know, I got more criticism from the Lebanese because of that scene than from the French. The French never talked about it. But the Lebanese said to me; "Why do you talk like this about the French. They are our friends". I swear to God.
NZ: Were you influenced by French film at all?
ZD: I hate all the intellectual talk about this subject. We had to study French film in high school. We had to watch French films every month and write essays. We watched Night and Fog, Jules and Jim, The 400 Blows, etc. But we also saw A Clockwork Orange, 2001 Space Odyssey, Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, Persona....All these films were considered part of our curriculum in high school. We couldn't read Shakespeare however, because it was a French school! Moliere yes. Shakespeare no. But the French give a lot of importance to teenagers and kids. And they make films about it. They are not children's films. I'm not saying that at all.
AJ: Right, they are films about kids but not for kids.
ZD: Yes. They deal with this complex period of life. Teenagers. This is where you inherit most of your injuries. And French are very good at it. They have a deep understanding of this period. But it's wrong to label it. In life, you are not influenced by movies for god's sake. You are influenced by life; by a love relationship, by your parents. And to tell you the truth I was a lot more influenced by American film than French film. The topic of West Beirut deals with youth in a French way but in terms of dialogue and structure, it's a lot more American.
For West Beirut's Schedule
For More Information, See Here
