12 Angry Lebanese

Went to see a fantastic documentary film showing in town a couple of nights ago, which you should really try and see if you have the chance - it's called 12 Angry Lebanese, and is about a theatre project in a Lebanese prison where they took 45 inmates and worked with them for a year to put on a production of an adapted version of the play '12 Angry Men'.



This film wasn't just interesting, it was inspirational - the filmn crew filmed the entire process as well as conducting interviews with the inmates during and after the project, and the insight into the personal journeys of these guys as well as the wider effects of the project was incredibly moving.

All of the inmates recognised that they were guilty of their crimes, but the process of gelling into a team and analysing the play (about 12 jurors deciding the fate of a young boy accused of murder) gave them the chance to think about themselves and how they have ended up where they are - aspects of their personality, the effects of hard upbringings, neglect and the like. They even included some of their own stories in the production, giving the audience a chance to think about how people turn to crime and maybe how this can be prevented through love and support. And this must have been particularly emotional in their last performance, when all of their families were in the audience - this was almost the last scene in the film, and there were a few emotional tears in the hosue by then!

The whole idea of having an audience of normal people from outside the prison was also amazing, giving the inmates a chance to feel like members of society again, and the members of the audience the opportunity to see the inmates not just as criminals to be forgotten, but people with talents and potential and humanity. The Interior Minister of Lebanon attended one performance, and there is an interview with him in the movie where you can see that he has been touched by the whole experience. He talks about realising the difference between the punishing inmates for their crimes by sending them to prison and continuing to punish and degrade them once they are there, rather than considering the possibility that they can learn and reform and grow into positive human beings. In fact, the inmates do a sketch in their production about a law that had been proposed in Lebanon in 2002 to allow inmates to to apply for early release, but which had not been implemented - the law was passed two months after the inmates' production.

And the person who pushes it all along and brings it all together is the director, the amazing Zeina Daccache. Not only does she get the project going and struggle with all of the obstacles and permissions needed, but also works day in day out with each and every individual and has the ability to inspire, chastise and get people's commitment to the project and themselves. It can't have been easy being the only woman in an all male prison, but she becomes accepted and respected to the point where they start calling her 'Abu Ali', a nickname that shows her being regarded as one of them and a strong person to boot.

Zeina was present at the showing of the film that I saw, and she is as impressive in real life as she was in the film; tall and full of energy that you can almost see sparking off her. We gave her a long ovation after watching the film, which she more than deserved, and although I couldn't really follow the Q&A afetr the film as it was in colloquial Arabic, I did get a quick chance to chat to her after and find out that she is still working every day with these guys and helping them continue their journeys, as well as trying to get new pprojects going.

It all reminded me that we cannot all be Ghandi or the Dalai Lama, but we can each in our own way recognise and encourage the humanity in other people, even in the toughest of conditions.