Under the Bombs

In the summer of 2006, 33 days of incessant Israeli bombing in Lebanon left nearly 1,200 men, women, and children dead, over a million civilians displaced, and the country shattered. Philippe Aractingi's UNDER THE BOMBS unearths personal stories from these devastating figures. Following a ceasefire enforced by the United Nations, Zeina, an affluent and beautiful young mother, returns to the war-torn country to find her son Karim, whom she hasn't heard from in a week. While countless cab drivers refuse to take Zeina to the South, where devastation is at its worst and where she left Karim with her sister, fellow southerner Tony risks his life (for a hefty sum) to help the fraught mother. As the unlikely duo search through miles of ruin for the young child, they encounter a myriad of anguished victims with heartbreaking stories of their own and slowly find unity in their collective loss. But is there still hope for Karim? Dedicating his film to “the suffering of the innocents,” Aractingi combines documentary footage of Lebanon with scripted narrative to portray the individual tales of a horrific national tragedy. (In English, Arabic, and French with English subtitles) – E.J.B.