Under the Bombs (2008)—France/Lebanon/UK

In the summer of 2006 Israel bombed southern Lebanon for 33 straight days, after which a cease fire was declared. 1189 people died and perhaps a million were made refugees. This film was shot on location after the cease-fire, and uses only two professional actors. Tony is a Christian taxi driver who takes Zeina, a Shiite who had been residing in Dubai, to find her son and sister. They search refugee centers, schools and convents, and end their improbable journey in a monastery where only the inanities of war could explain the bizarre conclusion. The film effectively takes you to the center of the war zone — bull dozers excavating mass graves, thumping helicopters deploying UN troops, bombed out roads and bridges, and the rubble and ruin of people's lives. "Yes, the hatred keeps growing," says one young Lebanese mother, as she stands in front of a shell of a building that used to be her apartment. In Arabic with English subtitles.