Twenty years after the civil war ended, Beirut is again a holiday destination; boutique hotels have risen from the rubble and wealth swaggers once more along the Corniche. This brief, explosive account of the weeks leading up to the massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in September 1982 is a timely reminder of Lebanon's divided past and precarious future. Ivan is 18, half-Danish, half-Palestinian; his politically implicated parents have left for a safer country, yet he remains to act as interpreter for trauma cases at the hospital within the camp at Sabra. Unbeknown to the international volunteers there he is also an underground messenger for the Palestinians. Time seems suspended; senses are heightened. Worldly-wise though innocent, Ivan is drawn to older Norwegian physiotherapist Eli and enraged orphan Youssef; just two of the exhausted, impassioned characters in Hiller's stunning, defiant debut.
Catherine Taylor
