Beirut, 13 April 1975. Officially the first day of the Lebanese civil war. Passengers on a Palestinian bus are massacred by the militia before the very eyes of two teenagers: Tarek and Omar. They live in the Moslem part of the city and pretend they don’t see the violence. They would rather have fun in the war-torn city. With May, a girl from the Christian quarter, they hang around the streets where they shoot film with a Super-8 camera. They get to know neighbours, shopkeepers and militia members. But gradually, they can no longer deny the violence and the changes. The teenagers are no longer even welcome in the ‘brothel’ in the Quartier des Oliviers, where Moslems and Christians could meet in peace.In an adventurous and stylish way, West Beyrouth tells the story of a youth stolen by the civil war, without using the most spectacular images. Doueiri: ‘The subject is emotionally charged enough.’ The début film by Doueiri, who emigrated to the US in 1983, is based for 90 percent on his own memories of his youth. ‘If I look back at my childhood in Lebanon, I realise that the happy memories have pushed aside the unhappy ones. I had a much less tragic idea of the war than you would expect. The war gave unbridled freedom, no imposed laws, neither in the country nor in my family: the whole system had collapsed…’
