Last Monday, in our way back from registration at NDU, me, Samer, and the wonderful Rayya went out to discover the journey of the "Boosta"; Lebanese film by "Philipe Araktonjy" a young Lebanese Director with a French Movie-Making backround.
I am very shy to tell that this out-going or trip if i can call it, if not a "journey", took us a three month period in order to implement. Three months went after the movie was introduced to the theaters and we still didnt agree on a final date to watch it. I will emphasize any more on the lateness issue of plan implementation since i am accused of it due to my Mountain vacations, but i will move on and not say additional words that may damage some ties. To tell you more, the whole theater was full of two guys and a girl ALONE, with their eyes pinned to the giant screen which came to swallow us. YES, we were alone in the 3 pm show time enjoying our VIP seets and vaccumed floor carpet.
The most important thing is that we reached the screen at last. It was a rainy day, messy if i can say, but nice after filling our stomaches with Hardees junkies, although very tasty.
If i want to telltale the story of the film, it talks about a group of diversified Lebanese youngs, by diversified I mean that from various religious sects, trying to form a dancing team but on their own modernized style; they wanted to modernice the traditional, cultural dance "the DABKEH" and manipulate its moves to meet trance rythyms with some pop and rock lines.
The move is great, I was well directed, well shooted, and well art-directed; It was shoot in the traditional Lebanese places starting from Aley, to Rachaya, to Baalbek, to Jounieh, and ends in Anjar. These towns resemble the religious belonging of each member of the group. They used to staudy in their childhood at the ALey School which was destroyed by the civil war; Rachaya reflects the Druz, Baalbek the Shites, and Jounieh the Christians.
After 15 years of exile in France, Kamal returns to Beirut with his mind set on one goal: recreate the dance group he had formed with his school friends and whom he hasn’t seen since – but today, not only does he want to bring back this disparate group together, but also take the bold move of introducing a Western flavor to the traditional Dabkeh music.
When the dancers audition before the jury of the national Dabkeh festival, they are curtly rejected on the basis that they are causing prejudice to the “only cultural icon left”. This prompts them to refurbish their old school bus and embark on a road trip across Lebanese towns to perform and introduce their pioneering dance to the public.
As they struggle to win people over to their alternative spirit, each of the dancers also realizes that they have also embarked on a personal journey to bond with their childhood, their friendships lost and found, the pains of the war and of separation… a journey that will lead a group of friends to turn the page on a painful past.
Bosta is a road musical that takes the audience on a wonderful journey across various Lebanese regions… a journey accompanied by a groundbreaking track and, of course, this truly pioneering dance, the electro-dabkeh.
The bus was the main cause of the civil war in 1975; It was the Ain Remmeneh incident that caused the broke of the civil war; But in this movie its role was resiprocated to become the tool that gathered all those Lebanese on a sole-main cause.
I was stunned by the movie, and i am willing to watch it again. I am very glad and proud to have such young and empowered directors like Philip Araktonji that are promising to revive the Lebanese cinema productions.
Lebanon never dies, coz its people are the Phoenix; They recreate and emerge from the ashes what so ever our enemies try to do.
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