Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Movie review #1: FALAFEL فلافل

Falafel the Lebanese  movie directed by Michel Kammoun  would be the first movie to review on my blog, I love watching movies, all kinds of them from all countries we just need to exclude the commercial ones, I really like criticizing them even though I’m not in a position to do so but I do it anyway, so I chose to start with a movie I picked from the library, I was seduced with the fact that  it was shot in Beirut one of those cities that held a certain mysterious charm, I hopped it would turn out good and I wasn’t disappointed even though I didn’t fully get what was happening. 


The movie follows a weekend evening of Toufic’s life, a young Lebanese man strolling around Beirut, so you can expect anything, especially that Toufic haa bunch of really good friends, the movie would take you on a journey full of emotions on Toufic’s motorbike.
The rest of this review would hold some spoilers so don’t blame me afterwards, even though you would still enjoy watching the movie even after reading it;

So Falafel is a 2006 lebanise film written and directed by Michel Kammoun, Michel Kammoun would take us to discaver Toufic’s word, we would meet his friends, his family and some random people that happened to be there. I really enjoyed this movie but also got confused at some parts of it, so let’s start with:

The things I did really enjoy: 
  • The random people Toufic met during that evening:



From the barber who was lecturing about how it would be profitable for the Lebanese’s economy to get use of girl’s dancing skills, to the man who got him the gun and a bunch of other who happened to cross Toufic’s road, some of them were hilarious other not so much,they just made the movie really funny.

  • Toufic’s really funny and caring  friends:



if there is there something we got to really know about Toufic, is that he has some really good friends, through the movie they turned from funny to caring to really loyal, they just stood there with toufic like he stood with them when they needed him, friendship was one of the theme of this movie that made it worth watching.
  • Toufic’s motorbike:

Half of the movie took place on Toufic motorbike, strolling on beirouth's roads, the main character went through all the emotions riding it happy, sad, in love, confused, angry. I felt so sad about what happened to it by the end of the movie.
  • The relationship between Toufic and his brother:



The movie didn’t let us know much about Toufic’s family, but it was a really clear that he held a special relationship with his mom and little brother, especially by the end of the movie, where the brother would calm down Toufic and made him change his revenge plans by doing nothing by just being there.

The things that I just couldn't get:
  • Falafel:

To tell the truth, I didn’t get the relationship between the FALAFEL and the movie’s story, first of all I didn’t even know what FALAFEL was, well through the movie I got to know that it was a popular Lebanese street food and from the talk of the the men who offered some to Toufic that it has a special connotation, but I just can't figure out the relationship between it and what happened to Toufic through out the movie, at some part of the movie it even starts raining FALAFEL, which was really odd and made me a bit confused.
  • Toufic’s anger:


One of the things I also couldn’t get was Toufic’s anger by the middle of the movie, well I understand that being in an unfair situation could make a young man angry but not to the extent of buying a gun and aiming to kill, that part of the movie wasn’t fun at all, it revealed a side of Toufic's personnalité that you wouldn't think was there, and how litlle we knew about him.

To sum up I really like this movie, maybe it won’t be the case for everyone, but I enjoyed it, the movie just delivers what it promises, an evening of a Lebanese student life, if I’ll have to rate it I’ll give it B. 
This is the movie trailer: