The car made its way through narrow streets crowded with pedestrians, then came to a stop in front of the Palestinian Media Bureau. I got out of the car and walked to the building where Antoinette’s office was. After the usual security measures, I went up. I found her waiting for me in the editing room, where she had finished loading in place the soundtrack and film reel. I took out my pen and paper, and immediately we set to work.
The First Part of the Film
Formations of warplanes carrying the Star of David on their sides. The planes make continual sorties over modest homes and extensive fields. Bombs explode in the middle of the fields. The houses collapse.
Title card:
In the first hours of 1975, Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon stepped up their intensity.
A circle around a paragraph from the Israeli newspaper Maariv, dated January 31, 1975. Mordechai Gur, the Israeli Army’s chief of staff, announces: “We have to create a new geopolitical situation in the region.”
The beautiful Lebanese tourist town of Chtaura. Snow covers the streets and the tops of trim-looking houses. A parade for Syrian president Hafez al-Assad makes its way through the streets of the town. The Lebanese president Suleiman Frangieh comes down the steps of his palace and walks forward to welcome the Syrian president.
An official spokesman reads out to journalists an announcement about the meeting between the two presidents. The announcement confirms Syria’s readiness to support Lebanon in the face of Israeli hostilities.
Title card:
At the same time…
Camille Chamoun stands before a long table surrounded by people sitting and standing. He raises a glass to his lips to toast the success of the Protein Company.
Title card:
The Protein Company was established with Lebanese and Gulf capital, a loan from the Shah of Iran, and technological support from a number of foreign companies. The founders chose Chamoun as president of the company. From Saeb Salam’s government, Chamoun obtained for the company a concession for a monopoly on fishing off Lebanese shores for a 99-year period.
Protest demonstrations by fishermen and nationalist and progressive parties. Signs carrying various slogans, including “The big fish eats the little fish” and “Our sons are soldiers in defense of southern Lebanon”.
The city of Sidon. A crowd of demonstration carries the Nasserist parliament member Maaruf Saad on their shoulders. The army fires on the demonstration.
Headline from a Lebanese newspaper: “Maaruf Saad hit by gunfire”.
Beirut. Several thousand Maronite students in a demonstration in support of the army. Signs demand the removal of weapons from the Palestinians.
Headline from a Lebanese newspaper: “Death of Maaruf Saad”.
An enormous demonstration raises up a photograph, draped in black, of Maaruf Saad.
Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Beirut. A long, quiet passageway with closed doors on both sides. A senior officer emerges from one of the rooms and loudly slams the door behind him.
Title card:
The army refused to hand over to the court the soldier who killed Maaruf Saad or the intelligence officer who gave him the order to do it.
Leaders of the nationalist and leftist parties around a round table. In the middle of them is Kamal Jumblatt. Journalists record Jumblatt’s announcement: “… Assassinating Maaruf Saad had several goals: terrorizing the people’s movement, manufacturing intercommunal discord, and drawing the Palestinian resistance into Lebanon’s internal struggle.”
Israeli planes drop bombs on South Lebanon.
Tel Aviv. An American luxury car carries Charbel Qassis, leader of the Lebanese Maronite religious orders, in his black clerical robes. A gold cross dangles from his neck.
Title card:
Father Charbel Qassis arrived in Israel on April 5.
Charbel Qassis waves with a hand adorned with diamond rings and jewels. A close-up of his plump face and full lips. He says: “What do the Muslims themselves think? Are their husbands more virile than our men? On Mount Lebanon we have men who can each have ten or twenty children.”
Beirut. The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council building in the Hazmieh neighborhood, the Maronite stronghold in Lebanon’s capital. The building’s graceful entrance. Twenty thousand Shias are gathered around the building.
Title card:
In the first week of April, the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council elected Imam Musa al-Sadr president for life.
A medium-sized bus, empty of passengers. Bullet marks on its sides and windows.
Title card:
On the afternoon of Sunday, April 13, 1975, this bus was on the way back from an event commemorating the victims of the Deir Yasin massacre. The bus was carrying a number of residents of the Tel Zaatar refugee camp, both Lebanese and Palestinians. When it reached the Ain El Remmaneh neighborhood, the Phalangist militia opened fire on it, killing twenty-six passengers — most of them children — and injuring twenty-nine others.
Bodies covered with Palestinian flags.
Jamil Street. A Volkswagen driven by a young man. The car reaches the Church of Our Lady of Salvation. Bullets are fired on the car from inside the church.
Mar Maroun Street. A speeding Fiat carries a number of armed men wearing the hatta, the checkered headscarf usually worn by Palestinians and the inhabitants of southern Lebanon. A number of armed men attempt to stop the car, but it forcibly drives right by them. The car’s passengers exchange gunfire with the armed men. One of the armed men falls to the ground. One of the passengers is struck, too.
The roof of a tall building. Three young men behind mounted machineguns. The guns rest on the edge of the roof. Near the young men is a pitcher of water and a tin plate. One of the young men is wearing platform shoes. The second one is wearing a leather jacket. The third has wrapped a military belt around his waist.
A distant shot, seen through the gun-sight of a machinegun. The gun-sight moves, searching for a target. The two crosshairs, in the shape of a cross, follow a moving body. The body gradually approaches the point where the crosshairs meet, and is revealed to be a middle-aged man running quickly. The gun-sight moves away from the man a little, settling on a point behind his feet. A bullet is fired. The gun-sight moves back to the man. It follows him as he runs. Another bullet is fired at a point in front of him. The man falls to the ground, quaking in fear. He gets up suddenly and continues running. The gun-sight focuses on the man’s hand. A bullet hits him, injuring him. The man puts his good hand on the injured one and keeps running. The gun-sight shakes in a dance-like movement, searching for a new target. A bullet hits the man in his leg. He falls to the ground. The gun-sight comes to rest on his stomach. A bullet hits the man in his stomach.
Sandbags along the sides of empty streets. A storefront with a sign above it saying “Original Mercedes Parts. Authorized Factory Dealers and Distributors”. A wrecked car in front of a closed store.
The asphalt around a demolished gas station. Small signs on the walls with only a single word remaining on them: “Super”. On the ground, a young man with disheveled hair in a shirt and pants, lying on his side. He drags himself forward, blood flowing out of him.
The burned interiors of the domes of the al-Majidiya Mosque near the Wood Merchants’ Wharf. A burned corpse showing marks from the rope that tied it up.
A large oil painting of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in her lap after he had been taken down from the cross, with daggers of grief lodged in her heart. Bullet holes are visible all over the painting.