Would an apology do it for you? I suppose it depends on subject matter and what the beef was exactly. In this case, it’s politics. Let me clarify: it’s a pig-headed, deliberate misunderstanding rooted in prejudicial politics, not unlike the kind of “misunderstandings” I see daily in the “fake news.” Hence, would I be satisfied by an apology along these subject lines? Say the entire Trump-voting population said, “We’re sorry. That was wrong.” I’d like to think that would do it for me, but it truly fails to recognize the extent of the damage that has been done since this awful man started running for President of the United States. Here’s the apology I would need: “On behalf of every last person who voted for Donald Trump, we’re sorry. Really, really sorry. We’re sorry for the monster we created and the political atmosphere of distrust and hate that we have stoked and blamed on others. Truth is, we’re embarrassed, too. We’re especially sorry for how easily our storm trooper-like minds are manipulated by the Sith Lords who control us. Our latent and not-so-latent prejudices are constantly exacerbated by Fox News, the Alt-Right, and Russian troll bots. We only have intellectual curiosity enough to deny information we don’t want to hear. Dishonesty has become so ingrained in our lives we don’t actually know the truth any longer. We’ve made a giant mess of things and are finally ready to atone.” That and only that piece of flying-pig fantasy would bring me back to the table to discuss where all of us have made miscalculations in perception. I have no illusions: This will never happen. I only hope that one day, honesty will prevail.
Hence, I can see with unrestricted clarity where The Insult is coming from. It’s a film in which two men from opposing demographic spectra turn an overreaction and an ill-chosen set of words into a Lebanese race war. Tony Hanna (Adel Karam) is a Christian auto mechanic with a very pregnant wife (Rita Hayek) at home. He attends bigoted political rallies where the speakers make veiled insinuations about how the country is being ruined by certain minorities. Gee, where have we heard this before? Yasser Abdallah Salameh (Kamel El Basha) is a Palestinian day laborer. His rights to live and work in Lebanon are both under constant scrutiny.
Look, it would be so much easier if I translated this into American: Tony is an evangelical Christian Trump guy. Yasser is a Mexican with a green card. The setting is somewhere not exactly in Trump country, but not exactly far from it, either – maybe the suburbs of Austin, TX, perhaps? There are some significant differences in the American translation, most notably being that Tony’s prejudices come from genuine horror, not Sean Hannity’s imagination, but the metaphor will suffice for this discussion.
Yasser is foreman of a crew sent to refurbish Tony’s apartment complex. Tony’s balcony drainage is substandard and he spills filthy runoff on Yasser while watering plants. Yasser asks if he can fix that. Tony has an unkind reply that amounts to “NO.” Yasser and his crew fix it anyway without ever setting foot in Tony’s apartment. Tony smashes the improvement with a big hammer to which Yasser calls Tony a “f***ing prick.” (That’s what the subtitles said, at least.)
OK, who’s at fault? Who’s the aggressor? Who deserves an apology? Who deserves a comeuppance?
Tony has decided he is the wronged party and demands an apology … and it just gets worse from there. If I’m being fair, neither man handles the aftermath with any semblance of dignity and soon the authorities have to get involved.
It is amazing how this story can take place in a tiny weird country most Americans can’t identify on the map featuring a whole set of folks who would all face horrible discrimination in the United States and yet the film couldn’t be more relevant if it were a discussion on building a wall between the United States and Mexico. We insulated Americans tend to imagine that as long as you’re not us, you’re “them,” a feeling egged on by the “America First” rhetoric of our current President. Yet, prejudice and xenophobia are hardly restricted to Americans. Turns out the conflict between Christian Lebanese and Muslim Palestinians is not dissimilar to the conflict between Jewish Israelis and Muslim 
Palestinians, nor is it dissimilar from half a dozen ethnic battles within our own country.
The Insult is an adult discussion about racial prejudice. It is high time we had one or more of these in our own country featuring people who are willing to come to the table –not just people like me waiting for the grand apology that will never come. This film has a keen insight into the idiocy that betrays civic harmony. Are you so proud that you truly need an apology before you can act like a grown-up? Grow up.
I’m slightly let down by the gimmicky nature of two revelations in the second-half of this film, but I’m not going to let those detract from a most insightful screenplay. I feel like this film should be required viewing for any voter in this country, right or left, who has decided their next ballot comes down entirely to, “I’m voting X because I don’t like Y.” Who knows, you might even learn something.
Cockwomble, numpty, fopdoodle, and loon
Gnashgab, loiter-sack, muck-spout, and goon
Smellfungus, stampcrab, yaldson, pinhead
Language so colorful, yet I only see red
Rated R, 112 Minutes
Director: Ziad Doueiri
Writer: Ziad Doueiri, Joelle Touma
Genre: The politics of hate
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Centrists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The undeterred generators of hatred
