Arts.21 # In Focus at the Berlinale – Wounds and contradictions in the Middle East # 07.02.2009

We look at two documentaries about the Middle East that are screening at the Berlinale. In "The One Man Village," Lebanon's Simon El-Habre portrays his uncle, the only resident of a mountain village turned into a ghost town by the Lebanese civil war. American director Yun Suh's "City of Borders" follows the regulars at Jerusalem's only gay bar, a place that brings together Israelis and Palestinians who risk their lives by challenging society's greatest taboos. Inside this sanctuary, patrons of all nationalities, religions and sexual orientations create a community among people typically viewed as each other’s enemy. Two views of the Middle East.