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TIFF Picks 09: Samuel Maoz’s Lebanon

Another Golden Lion option at Venice this year, there are obvious comparisons between this debut and such recent examples as Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, the difference is this first time filmmaker actually remembers the war.

Eric Lavallée

Published on August 22, 2009

#3. LEBANON

Director: Samuel Maoz
Cast: Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Michael Moshonov, Zohar Strauss
Distributor: Rights Available.

Buzz: Another Golden Lion option at Venice this year, there are obvious comparisons between this debut and such recent examples as Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, the difference is this first time filmmaker actually remembers the war. If he didn’t make the film, Moaz’s torture would have continued to god knows where. There is a lot of good product coming out of Israel this year – and this could be the country’s selection as Best Foreign Language film.

The Gist: “I had just turned 19 in May of 1982. Life was
beautiful. I was in love. Then I was requested to go to a military base. They assigned me to be the gunman of a tank, the first one to cross the Lebanese border. It was supposed to be a one day mission. It turned into a journey into hell. I had not killed before, yet I became a killing machine. Something there died deep inside me. It took me more than 20 years to get out this tank.
This is my story.”

TIFF Schedule: TBA

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).