The Misfortunes of Some

"It doesn't matter to us whether someone is Christian, Muslim or Jewish. We believe everyone is equal," says a vendor at a bazaar in Beirut. "Here, the laws of commerce prevail." One of these laws says that a pair of trousers from Lebanon are seen as chic on the textile market: a good reason to replace labels saying "Made in Hong Kong" or "Made in Taiwan" with "Made in Lebanon." We then see pigeons, greedily pecking at grain with their beaks. It is 1981, and Lebanon is being ripped apart by civil war. Nevertheless, the residents of Beirut hold their heads high. A taxi driver shepherding his clients safely through the roadblocks has another job: laying out corpses in the mortuary. At home, he happily puffs at his water pipe, sings songs for his wife, takes good care of his well-shaped moustache and cherishes his luxury edition of the Koran. The various short episodes are introduced by the old-fashioned tune from a computer game. This helps keep the mood remarkably light, even though the war is never far away. When we see the horrific consequences of a bomb attack, some people shout, "It's a conspiracy!"