Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017: #58. Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult

The Insult

Director: Ziad Doueiri
Writer: Joelle Touma

After spending most of the 90s as an assistant cameraman on Quentin Tarantino films, Ziad Doueiri broke out on his own in 1998 with West Beirut, followed by Lila Says (2002), and breaking out in 2012 with the compelling The Attack. After developing a project once planned to star Gerard Depardieu with his screenwriter Joelle Touma, they’ve moved forward with The Insult, a co-production between France, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Belgium which concerns a banal incident involving a Lebanese and Palestinian neighbor which spirals into a legal nightmare of clashing political perspectives. It sounds like an aggressive version of themes mounted in Eran Riklis’ 2008 Lemon Tree.

Cast: Adel Karam, Christine Choueiri, Kamel El Basha, Rita Hayek, Elie Njem, Tatal El Jurdi, Camil Salameh, Diamand Bou Abboud and Georges Daou.

Production Co./Producer(s): Tessalit Productions (Jean Bréhat, Rachid Bouchareb), Rouge International (Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev), Ezekiel Film, Douri Films, Scope Pictures.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available.

Release Date: The Attack premiered out of Telluride and snagged several awards for Doueiri as it navigated the festival circuit (including a Special Mention of the Jury in San Sebastian). Filming took place last summer, so we’d expect The Insult to premiere earlier in 2017, though a North American premiere at TIFF should be expected.

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