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"The Insult plunges into the thicket of Lebanon’s sectarian divisions with a riveting courtroom drama that shows how even minor interpersonal tensions can boil over into national traumas … terrific accomplishments on every front, from writing and directing to acting and cinematography. 4/4" – RogerEbert.com
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, The Insult is the multi-award winning new work from Lebanese visionary Ziad Doueiri (The Attack, MIFF 2012). A fast-paced, sharp-tongued tour through the complex cultural and political divisions that constitute modern Lebanon, The Insult shows Doueiri at his provocative, sure-footed best.
A Palestinian refugee insults a Lebanese Christian in a heated exchange. In another world, it’s a provocation that might have gone uncontested but not in Lebanon, where even the most passing of gestures has become freighted with outsize meaning. Soon the two men are embroiled in a high-stakes legal battle, whose outcome could have profound implications for the identity and future of the only Arabic democracy in the Middle East.
