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<p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>By director of “<a
href="http://www.bostathemovie.com/">Bosta</a>”, Philippe Aractingi<br>
Trailer: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbabkJPcTts">www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbabkJPcTts</a><br>
Official Website: <a href="http://www.underthebombs.com/">www.underthebombs.com</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:country-region w:st="on"><b><font size=5
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Lebanon</span></font></b></st1:country-region><b><font
size=5><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:bold'> war film takes award at
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:City> film
festival</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>By Lin
Noueihed<br>
Reuters<br>
Sunday, December 16, 2007; 5:02 AM</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>DUBAI</span></font></st1:City> (Reuters) -
"Under the Bombs," a movie about interfaith love during the 2006 war
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>, was named best
film in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:City>'s
awards for Arab cinema, in a year when films about conflict abounded.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Lebanon</span></font></st1:country-region>'s Nada
Abou Farhat also won the best actress award on Saturday for her role as Zeina,
a Shi'ite Muslim divorcee who heads to southern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the midst of the
fighting to search for her son and falls in love with a Christian taxi driver.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I
felt the hatred building inside of me and I wanted to get it out ... I wanted
to make something against hate," Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi told
the audience on picking up his Muhr Award, shaped like a horse's head.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Both
Aractingi and Abou Farhat dedicated their awards to those who died in the
month-long war between <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and Hezbollah guerrillas that displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and
saw many of their homes destroyed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Aractingi's
last film "Bosta," <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
entry for the Academy Awards foreign-language film in 2006, was a popular
musical comedy and "Under the Bombs" was a surprise choice for many
critics who felt it was picked for its subject matter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Aesthetically
speaking, I thought a number of other films were better than 'Under the Bombs,'
both 'Yellow House,' which took no prizes, in either Cairo or here, and the
'Secret of the Grain,"' said Beirut-based film critic Jim Quilty.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There
are two main criteria in judging a film; you can look at the topic or at more
aesthetic aspects and the two films that have taken gold in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:City> for the first two years suggest the
story is more important."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
Secret of the Grain," Tunisian Abdellatif Kechiche's well-received film
about reuniting family, took the bronze award this year. Nouri Bouzid's
"The Making of," which centers on a film shoot in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Tunisia</st1:country-region> as the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> war unfolds, won silver.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:City> film festival, in
its fourth year, launched the Muhr Awards for Excellence in Arab Cinema in 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
festival attracts many Arab filmmakers because its industry section encourages
international co-productions and its trophies come with cash prizes of up to
$50,000.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Lebanon</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
15-year civil war has long been the main source of inspiration for Lebanese
filmmakers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Borhane
Alaouie's post-civil war film "Khalass" scooped best screenplay and
best editing. Three documentaries that screened at <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:City> also explore the 2006 war, but won no
awards.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mai
Masri's "33 Days" follows a group of Lebanese journalists and
activists as the war unfolds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Anwar
Brahem's "Words in the Wake of War" mixes interviews with six
well-known Lebanese intellectuals and artists with footage from the 2006 war,
the civil war and happier times.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Best
documentary went to Karim Goury's "Made in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>," about the
French-Egyptian director's search for his heritage. Silver and bronze went to
Palestinian films; "Maria's Grotto" by Bouthaina Khoury Kanaan and
"Shadow of Absence" by Nasri Hajjaj.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>(editing
by Elizabeth Piper)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<!-- start the copyright for the articles -->
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>© 2007 Reuters<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><br>
By director of “<a href="http://www.bostathemovie.com/">Bosta</a>”,
Philippe Aractingi<br>
Trailer: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbabkJPcTts">www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbabkJPcTts</a><br>
Official Website: <a href="http://www.underthebombs.com/">www.underthebombs.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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