Battling Israel's 'real war' in Lebanon
Updated on 16 May 2010
An Israeli film that tackles the country's once taboo subject of the 1982 conflict in Lebanon - described as Israel's Vietnam - has been released this weekend to critical acclaim. Director Samuel Moaz telling Channel 4 News that he wanted to portray a "real war" where "you feel the death".
In 1982, Samuel Moaz served as a 20-year-old tank gunner for the Israeli Defence Forces in the 45-day Lebanon war.
Nearly three decades later, his autobiographical film - Lebanon - relieves those experiences and claustrophobia of being stuck inside a tank with its four-man crew.
It achieved critical acclaim by becoming the first Israeli movie to win the Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival.
Lebanon has been described as an anti-war film by some critics, and personal therapy by its director.
But Samuel Moaz told Channel 4 News his aim was to depict war in its true state of terror.
"All the war films sell us entertainment in the way you have heroes and sacrifices. When the hero dies, even the blood is sexy.
"But this is not real war. In real war, you are afraid, you are shaking because you feel the death"
Israel's invasion of Lebanon was once judged a taboo subject inside the country
However in 2008, the animated film Waltz with Bashir was released. It focused on the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilia refugee camps during the war.
And Moaz says the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon again highlighted the dangers he had faced more than twenty years earlier.
"In the six-day-war for example, the war kept its game rules. On the right side one army on the left side another, each army has its own uniform to see the difference between them," he said.
"In the Lebanon war all those basic rules didn't exists. The war took place inside neighbourhoods. It was something like ten enemies, all wearing jeans. You couldn't see the difference between soldier and civilians."
