Je Veux Voir

Visiting Beirut for the first time, French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve wants to see the destruction wrought on the region by decades of civil war and Israeli bombardments. Her charismatic presence finds a sympathetic balance in her guide, gentle local actor Rabih Mroué. He drives her around the city and then to the village in southern Lebanon where he grew up. There are many extraordinary moments here – a monologue from Belle de Jour delivered in Arabic; Israel’s ‘imaginary raids’; and the futility of Mroué’s search in his memory amid a place of utter destruction for his grandmother’s home. It’s unusual to see these scenes of TV news or war movies captured after the event, in beautiful HD. Je Veux Voir is testament to a world where setting up a camera tripod is a putative act of aggression.

Jonas Milk