Ersbel Oraph Yes, Hitchens said it, but I thought it is impossible to make a story out of this affirmation. I almost let out a scream when the movie ended. Evrika! Ecce Femina! Nadine Labaki did it!It is an epochal movie. And I can't seem to hold the excitement. Here is the perfect scene of religion: men doing nothing, not even reasoning, a village with two temples and no school, all sort of weapons and almost no trace of any other tool, a cemetery. But the most important trait of this movie is not the religious fable. The amazing script finally presents the woman otherwise. In a land of savage violence, the women are no longer the breeders and not much else. They are truly life givers, but not in the patriarchal sense getting raped, getting pregnant, enjoying the pleasures of seeing the offsprings die one by one for petty reasons. The women in this fable are no longer passive. Like in La Source des femmes, the women take initiative to help their own community for which they care. Here you have strong female characters, and not simply the Hollywood ambitious type like in Working Girl.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

treneemi Though I am not accustomed to the cinematography, I enjoyed this movie, the characters and the emotion of it immensely. These women risked a lot to spread seeds in the hopes of creating change and peace. This movie revealed some cultural and world-views that give one a hint of understanding of these beautiful people. Personally, it seems to me that the movie seems to support what I suspect a lot about all religions-male dominated and males start so many battles-all over misunderstandings and intolerance and narcissism, among other things (I know that's a generalization, but it is common). This small, but close group of women think outside the box to accomplish something that may otherwise seem impossible to many of the rest of us. They are beautiful

mountainstonePT The storyline on this wonderful small film shot in Lebanon and other locations, is that the women of this part of the middle east are just fed up with the senseless death of their sons, brothers and fathers, due to religious sectarianism. The steps they go to, to end this insanity are wonderfully funny, and very much to the point of what is needed to break the cycle of violence. The script is a gem. The team of writers, including director and co-star Nadine Labaki, is just great. It pulls us from comedy through tenderness and tragedy. The acting troupe is very good, very believable. It seems to be shot on location, sets are real enough to make you believe you are there. The cinematography is great, really showing the town as it is, and placing you very much in the middle of the scenes. Nice lighting, color balance is warm and soft, giving a very homey look to the locations. It's all too seldom that we who are not in the middle of a internal civil war such as this get to see a window into the world that is trying to hang on to it's sanity, not yet having fallen over the precipice into full scale chaos.This is a very wonderful, funny, and poignant window into that world, told by people who are very close to the real situation. It could not have been invented by a California filmmaker. It falls into the classes of films like "The Debt" and "of Gods and Men", stories of middle eastern conflict that are not set pieces, or play to western stereotypes of what is happening there, though it is much 'lighter' and less of a drama than those. This has much more light hearted nature than those films. 9 stars out of ten, for wonderful original storyline, wonderful unknown cast, good acting, great cinematography, nice weaving of humour and pathos, contemporary story, without being trite, solid editing. Also just a good movie, beyond all the technical nonsense. So if you have read this far, saw those other films, and liked them, you likely will like this better. Again, hard to imagine you will be disappointed in this gem.

Tim Johnson Diane and I saw this delightful film several days ago and its memory is as sharp now as then. The Director manages to put a rounded point on the sharp knives of the sectarian oriented men of the village and how she does this remarkable feat sums up the entire film. The director sites the film in an extraordinarily remote small village in strife torn Lebanon, I believe, to emphasize that these villagers are on their own with little outside influence to taint the purity of their own sectarian struggle; there are no outsiders to stir the pot, so to speak. I believe that this is critical to the film's blossoming in that the isolation reinforces the purity of the sequence of the unfolding events.After reading many of the Lebanese comments I cannot subscribe to the negative judgments of some of them. Obviously, as an outsider, I cannot judge the veracity of these negative comments but after viewing the film and reading the positive reader comments I must believe those people. See the movie and judge for yourself; it is a film from the heart and a, to me, believable insight into a country that has garnered much news space but little understanding.