THE KITE (LE CERF-VOLANT)
Lebanon, 2003, 80 minutes, Colour.
Flavia Bechara, Maher Bsaibes, Rasma Asmar.
Directed by Randa Chahal Sabag.
The Kite is set on the Lebanese- Israeli border, a village which has been annexed by the Israelis and which is cut off from relatives in the neighbouring village. There are watchtowers, Druze soldiers guarding, barbed wire, mines. Families grow up on each side of this division, having to talk to each other by megaphones, shouting across the border.
The film focuses on a sixteen-year-old girl who has been promised in marriage to her cousin on the Israeli side of the border. She is still a girl at school, plays with kites, even risking going into the no-man's land where mines are set to recover a kite. She goes across the border but does not love her intended husband, not eating or drinking for twenty days, pining for home. Eventually, it is arranged that she return home. She is attracted by the young Druze guard on the tower who is continually criticised by authorities but continually uses his binoculars to watch the young girl.
The film has a fantasy ending where she goes into the neutral zone and is killed by a mine - only to appear to the young soldier. The film is very moving in its presentation of ordinary people divided by a war not of their own devising. It is a strong claim for peace.
1. The title, the children playing with kites at the beginning, Lamia going to get the kite from the barbed wire and risking the mines? The freedom of the kites to fly wherever they can? The symbol for Lamia and the young people in the villages?
2. The terrain of the Israel- Lebanese border, the mountains, the border itself, the barbed wire and the watchtowers?
3. The atmosphere of Lebanon contrasting with that of Israel? A Lebanese perspective on the situation?
4. Lamia, her age, playing with the children, talking with her schoolmate, especially about sexuality of which they were both ignorant? Her being promised in marriage, the elders deciding that she should go across the border, her mother and her aunt doing the negotiations? Her dressing in the bridal gown, going across? Her fear, her meeting with Samy, the cousins on the Israeli side? Wanting the marriage? The food, the young cousin and his bringing the food (and eating it)? Her looking out the window at the people swimming in the pool? Her wandering the fields? Her allowing the young soldier to watch her, unbuttoning her blouse, walking in the grass? Her finally being allowed back? The people in the village thinking it a dishonour? Her going into the neutral zone, her being killed by the mine? Her appearing to the soldier?
5. Her mother and her aunt, the young boy, the extended family, lifestyle in Lebanon? The Islamic background? The council of elders and their decisions binding everyone? The return of Lamia? The baker and his comments? Her mother throwing flour through the windows and smashing them? The sense of honour in the village?
6. The people on the Israeli side, the cousins? Trying to do the best for Lamia? Samy, his not loving her, their discussions, his letting her go?
7. Lamia and her dreams, hands across the border, dreams of freedom? Dreams of danger?
8. The guards, the young man and his listening to the music, being reprimanded by the officer? The national slur about Arabs and Israelis? The older guard and his care, wisdom?
9. A glimpse of a particular area of the world, danger, the desire for peace? The possibility of there ever being peace and the breaking down of this border?
