1982 isn’t your average war movie.
This is a love story that unfolds during tensions in the Middle East 40 years ago, when Israel invaded Lebanon. Oualid Mouaness, a Lebanese filmmaker, wrote and directed the film. He was inspired by his own memories.
At the age of 10, he was attending a idyllic school in Beirut’s suburbs. The war altered his life forever. Morning Edition: Mouaness says that he does remember everything being so beautiful, and everything changing.
“I can still remember that afternoon when there were dogfights in the sky. “That’s when my younger brother, who was just a few years older than me, lost it completely and began screaming at us to get inside because he believed the planes would fall on us,” he said.
The backdrop was a divided city, with a predominantly Muslim West Beirut and a predominantly Christian East Beirut.
1982 is based on a school that Mouaness attended. The school is beautiful and set in the mountains of Lebanon. It is religiously mixed. The kids seamlessly switch from Arabic to English to French. They are not yet indoctrinated into a world of ideological and religious divides.
The story centers on Wissam, an 11-year-old boy who experiences what it is like to live in a country separated by checkpoints. Wissam becomes obsessed by a crush on the girl in his class as war threatens. This is something the filmmaker recalls from his childhood.
The filmmaker’s memories of 1982 as they were.
We went to school. The day was normal. But then, suddenly the war became too close to home sonically. The noises got more and more louder, so teachers couldn’t hide it any longer. Even though we knew we wouldn’t be bombed per-se, the noises and nature of the country were so disruptive that we had no choice but to return home.
It was a rare opportunity to attend a mixed school in Lebanon. My school was home to all religions. Both East Beirut and West Beirut had children. For those children who were from West Beirut, they would need to pass through checkpoints in order to reach the school. It was clear that all crossings were suddenly closed and that the children couldn’t return to West Beirut. No one could reach the other end of the phone lines.
Through the eyes of students and teachers, we can see war.
Teachers felt it was very moving. It was also very emotional for the children. It was a separation of the adults world and the children’s world. We as children don’t care about the differences, and this movie really shows that. We don’t care if someone is Christian or Muslim. They are our playmates. They feel the same. We can love one another. You can do anything together. You can see the separation as the adult world begins to interfere with the children’s world.
This is the first time the children realize there are things that will separate and distinguish us as we grow older. The world of adults involved in wars is very contaminated. It is a world driven by ideology, religion, and social mores. There are two sides to the story in most places around the globe.
Yasmine Wissam, Wissam’s teacher is on the right. On the left is the man she’s in love with. She loves them both and is in love with one of them.
On love trumping political divides:
As you get older, society and politics force you to choose sides. Fear. Fearless, the young boy is. His brother is afraid. He doesn’t. His brother then tells him, “Are you crazy?” Do you want to go to West Beirut, Wissam? Wissam isn’t afraid because he doesn’t care. He considers being able and able to see his girl more important than any obstacle, including war or checkpoint.
The importance of magical realism
This was the end of the film. This film is about children and hope. Children have an unrestricted imagination that sees the world differently. There are many reasons I felt 100 percent in this instance. This is why I decided to leave the audience. It’s not easy for viewers to follow the story.
