Lebanon

Of all the wars fought by Israel, the ones that probably most damaged both the country's overseas image and its self-respect were waged in neighbouring Lebanon. Samuel Maoz was a young Israeli army recruit stuck in an invading tank in 1982, and his experiences led him to write and direct Lebanon. It won the Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, the Israeli film industry's first win there, and stirred up controversy and no film awards at home: its anti-war sentiment exposes the brutality and lies a country's leaders impose on their young soldiers.

Four novice army recruits are posted to a tank ordered to enter an air-bombed Lebanese village. One drives the "rhinoceros"; the gunner, loader and tank commander squeeze into the turret. Their only views of the outside world are through periscoped gun sights, which highlight their killing machine's purpose: the outside world is a landscape of targets inhabited by people who seem to be in an alien, impersonal world.

The tank, even more than the submarine in Das Boot, is a harsh, ugly military environment filled with the smells of fuel, urine, sweat and explosives. For a time, it also contains the corpse of an Israeli soldier the tank crew had caused to die. A professional commanding officer enters too, browbeating the scared, tired and dirty crewmen. They are instructed to fire illegal phosporus bombs in a clandestine way, and hold a Syrian POW inside the turret. Their nastiest outside visitor is a vicious Arabic-speaking Phalangist (Lebanese Catholic) who, unknown to the crew, puts the fear of Allah into the POW.

The gun sight shows bloodied corpses, maimed bodies, terrified children and women, eyes staring hatefully, buildings demolished. The reality of war, as the writer-director presents it, is never a matter of personal heroism or nationalist pride. It's shown as a living nightmare its participants have to learn how to live through, or die. The tank's dark and dingy setting, its claustrophobic atmosphere, the space restrictions and inevitable mechanical problems and personality conflicts do not glorify this type of mechanised warfare. It's condemned vividly, by a man whose first-hand experience and disgust can be sensed, almost smelt and felt, throughout the docudrama.