The Insult: A desperate cry for empathy

AN ARGUMENT and a few angry words escalate into riots in this thoughtful and compelling new movie.

IT WAS never just about a gutter pipe.

When Tony Hanna (Adel Karam) finds a worker fixing his illegal gutter, he smashes it in anger. That worker, Yasser Abdallah Salameh (Kamel El Basha), returns the violent action with terse words, calling Tony a “f***ing prick”.

If only it ended there. Instead, that one exchange takes on a life of its own, escalating into a full-blown quarrel before eventually inciting citywide riots.

The Insult, a Lebanese drama directed by Ziad Doueiri and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Oscars, is a thrilling, thoughtful and complex story.

It’s centred on these two men but it’s about much more than them as it delves into the almost impossible context of their lives — of history, of past trauma, of the difficulty of reconciliation after civil war, and of prejudice.

For you see, Tony is a Lebanese Christian and a member of the Christian Party. When he recognises Yasser as a Palestinian refugee, it gets his hackles up.

He’s full of rage over what he sees as an encroachment on his home, he listens to anti-Palestinian propaganda and it’s only later in the film when you realise the extent of why he is the way he is, why he is unable to, as his wife puts it, “turn the page”.

The trauma of war and reconciliation weigh heavy on The Insult.

After the insult, he demands an apology from Yasser and his boss.

When Yasser turns up outside Tony’s workshop — despite his reticence, he’s willing to say sorry — he knows his position in Lebanese society is precarious. But Tony can’t help himself, he spits in Yasser’s face these extremely loaded words, words that will be repeated again: “I wish (Ariel) Sharon had wiped you out”.

Yasser snaps and punches Tony, breaking two ribs.

An initial court case over the assault leads to another court case, this time with Tony represented by a high-profile, grandstanding lawyer (Camille Salameh) while Yasser’s lawyer (Diamand Bou Abboud) is young and idealistic but smart.

The case between the two men, of a Lebanese Christian suing a Palestinian refugee, draws national attention and it becomes symbolic of much wider tensions — every day, more and more people turn up to support either side, brandishing placards, flags and anguish rooted in a painful history.

The numerous courtroom scenes are surprisingly effective and charged as the nuances of a centuries-old conflict is played out. It’s not easy to make these kinds of procedural scenes sing and leap off the page but in The Insult the filmmakers have. The editing and pacing of these scenes are brilliant, as the film builds the tension to the point where you’re begging for release. Its tonal shifts are also very well executed.

When one small argument turns into national riots.

What the case represents touches on what countries all over the world are now grappling with — the consequences of free speech without wisdom, sectarian grievances, historical trauma, cultural identity and living in close quarters with people you don’t understand.

Among the fever of the case and the media circus that surrounds it are these two men — humans with emotions, dreams, flaws and the burden of their own baggage.

Increasingly, they start to recognise each other as more than standing in for their own sense of injustice, and it’s in those quiet moments between them where The Insult really hits home. El Basha (who won the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival in 2017 for this role) and Karam give extraordinarily nuanced performances.

The Insult doesn’t come down on either side of the conflict by the end — a far too manifold undertaking for one film — but its overriding message is a cry for empathy, of stepping outside of yourself for a moment because “no one has the monopoly on suffering”.

Sometimes, that’s the start we’re looking for.

Rating: ★★★★

The Insult is in cinemas from Thursday, August 30.

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