Lebanon   Starring: Oshri Cohen and Itay Tiran Metrodome Distribution RRP: £15.99 MTD5546 Certificate: 15 Available 23 August 2010

In the June of 1982, during the first Lebanon war, a lone tank is sent as to support the infantry as it searches a potentially hostile town, what should have been an easy mission soon turns out to be a nightmare for the tank crew...

Lebanon (2009 - 1 hr, 29 min, 39 sec) is a deeply personal account of the first Lebanon war from writer/director Samuel Maoz and covers the same conflict as Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir (2008). As both men actually served in the war both films portray the horrors they witnessed. Lebanon was well received and won nine awards and further nominated for six more.

Unlike most war films which revel in the spectacle of war, even when they are trying to convey its horrors, Lebanon traps the audience inside the tank with the crew, restricting their view of the outer world. The only exterior shots are at the beginning and end of the film, with the movie opening with a shot of a perfect field of flowers, the same field in which the tank finds itself at the film's close, sitting like an incongruous reminder of how misplaced war can be in a world of potential beauty.

The crew consist of young, inexperienced men whose fear and terror increase as their mission goes wrong. Much of what we witness is seen down the telescope of the gunner, Shmulik (Yoav Donat) whose initial hesitation at killing potential civilians leads to the death of an Israeli soldier. When the tank arrives at the town they are confronted with insurgents using an innocent family as human shields, the resulting conflict kills the insurgents and the family leaving only the mother naked and distraught, screaming for the loss of her daughter.

Things continue to spiral out of control when a captured Syrian is placed in their tank prior to the arrival of supposedly friendly Phalangist’s whose motivations are suspect, a fear given truth when they lead the tank away from the infantry, stranding them in a trap in which Yigal (Michael Moshonov), the driver, is killed.

What sets this film apart is the decision to show the war only from the perspective of the tank. As their mission progresses, and the tank takes hits, the interior descends into a vision from Dante’s Inferno. In the heat and the accumulated filth the men start to lose their identities. Their filth plastered faces only heightens the fear in their eyes.

The film, apart from one early shot which gives you some idea of the size of the tank, is mostly tightly framed, showing either a close up or a constricted two shot. The whole thing adds to the feeling of the audience sharing the claustrophobia felt by the crew.

What brings the film to life is the soundscape. Trapped in the tank the audience is acutely aware of every rumble of tracks, the mechanical grating of the gun sight as it takes in the horrors surrounding the tank.

Undoubtedly, this is an amazing achievement by Samuel Maoz, who has been able to use his own experience of war to produce something which allows the audience to feel the fear felt by the crew. By the end of the film you will almost feel as if you also had been there.

The copy sent out for review was a screener with no extras. Presented in stereo the disc does have a very informative full length commentary by the director. According to the PR blurb the finished disc will also have two text files, one detailing the history of the war and another looking at the background to the film.

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Charles Packer