|
||
|
||
| Israeli flag flies high
in Lebanon, on film By Nathan Burstei, Forward The Israeli flag fluttered briefly over southern Lebanon in mid-February, probably with Hezbollahs permission. No, the Shiite
group hasnt come down with an unexpected case of Zionism. Instead, the Star of David
was hoisted over Beaufort, a Crusader fortress in Lebanons southern region, as part
of a film shoot, with Syrian actors also at the site, dressed in Israeli military
uniforms. Whatever its perspective on the fighting, the film wont be the first recent project partly set at the fortress. Beaufort served as the setting and title of a 2007 Israeli film, which last year became Israels first in a generation to earn an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. Anzours use of the fortress for filming and the display of Israels flag over its walls probably needed to be cleared with Hezbollah, which controls the area, wrote Smadar Peri, one of Yediot Aharonots correspondents in the Arab world. The groups approval of Anzours project may have surprised some Arab cultural observers because of a past controversy over the directors work. His 2005 project, a TV series critical of suicide bombers, inspired death threats aimed at the director, but it also drew tens of millions of viewers across the Arab world. |