The film is based on a play by Wajdi Mouawad. A man is told that his father has died. he puts his clothes on, walks to the morgue, identifies the deceased. His uncles and aunts arrive to mourn with him. They hate the father whom they accuse of killing his wife who was too fragile to give birth. One of the uncles says there is no way he'll be buried next to his sister. The son decides then to take his father and his coffin back to Lebanon his country of origin. But even in Lebanon, no one wants him either in their village, cemetery or backyard. The film is as fake and artificial as can be. First of all, being Lebanese myself, i never was greeted in Lebanon with military people waving their gunshots to my face and insulting me for being Canadian. Secondly, I have never been in a cab in Beirut where passengers speak Moroccan. Third, Lebanese characters are played by quebecors who try to have a Lebanese french accent, and there Arabic is extravagantly latinized. Forth, the movie is shot in Albania, trying to replicate Lebanese scenery. For a second i thought we were at a ClubMed. And the worst of all is that the director himself is Lebanese. Is he pleasing Canadians who have hailed him as a great playwright (rightfully i should add, and i encourage reading his plays)? what about the Lebanese people who will see his movie, or any Arabic speaking individual. I would have fled the theatre 15 minutes within the film, but the director was sitting few rows in front of me, and i wanted to let him know of my discontent. When i told him about my views of the film he said he totally understand my views but that it's only fiction. only fiction? well when you duplicate a place that looks like that, where no one seems like they are supposed to look like, it becomes science fiction, not fiction. Some playwrites should stick to the pen and forget about celluloid.
