Provoked Narratives
South Lebanon: Story of a Village Under Siege (1976)
14 mins, Color, 16 mm
In 1976, Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab traveled to the south of Lebanon to document the Israeli attacks on the Lebanese villages of Kufr Shuba and Hanine for French TV. She avoids filming the Palestinian resistance, focusing instead on the military dynamics at work in the context of the Lebanese civil war. By exposing the complicity of the Phalangists and the Israeli army, she denounces the lies of the Lebanese parties and the injustice of the violence perpetrated against Lebanese civilians in the south of the country. Though one of her earliest films, South Lebanon is reflective of Saab’s distinct filmmaking style – inquisitive, personal, unafraid of asking probing questions and taking bold positions. Her report served to shift the narrative by underlining to a European audience that the Israeli army was not only targeting Palestinians but also knowingly destroying Lebanese villages.
South Lebanon is available in French with English, Arabic and Spanish subtitles.