User Reviews

I am in love with every single frame of this movie… Just inspiring, just leading to true reflexion… One of its kind in its artistic and esthetic's choices.. Poetry from the beginning till the end, with a new way of interpretation that no other Lebanese Director had the courage to do it this way.

From The opening scene, which begins with a bucket of water and ends with the house, we can feel an opening to an antique village, a heritage, a country, to Lebanon. This house of the past is revisited by actors that become characters; aliens that morph into the skin of those most familiar. This space becomes, throughout the film, a place of meeting; meeting with the past; meeting of the real with the imaginary.

The child during the film creates a kind of brackets. He concludes a life cycle: we return to the same space that of which we came out of, but certainly with modification, with change. The final jump the child takes sends him to new territories, towards a new discovery, a new infinity, a new virtual imaginary space, a new film. Memory reaps nothing but the harvest of interference. One throws himself into the past, tries to imagine his future, and creates a present that one overlooks relentlessly. The film that doesn't lack traveling in, makes absence to traveling back, except for two critical moments: the opening scene and the end shot. At the beginning, when the camera starts backing out from the close up of the mother, it reveals the entire scene of Childbirth, bringing all the characters close around, one next to the other, until the baby's delivery. The camera here draws the path of the newborn's journey to the outside world. The child comes out and is liberated; the camera also moves away to better simulate the situation. It is liberated from the real story and becomes the camera that will weave just as a sewing machine would, its own film.

The controversial issues that this movie talked about is so deep and true to a point it really frustrated some parts of closed societies who ask for censorship…

I give all my respect to this piece of art.

Poor story-line, poor scenario, poor performances.

The movie is full of eye-candy. Very little else, except quick-wins like the Rayovac commercial, the traditional dough-making scene, etc, obviously added in to trigger nostalgia without having any real role. Close-ups of the main characters and colorful scenic shots, despite their beauty, are excessive and quickly turn into a nuisance - a failed attempt to overshadow the lack of substance in the movie.

The love story fails to come across as genuine - as the rest of this movie.

Generally, presumptuous and a waste of time!

I must congratulate you for the awful image you create to the world Of Lebanon. It felt like the director is someone who really hates Lebanon first and Christianity second when changing in a such low way what we are proud of. A formal apology is required for this audiovisual insult and a solid position of all the viewers not to accept any form of racism and religious intolerance by not viewing these genre of movies. The actors are really good and soundtrack is beautiful. The story is incoherent and it is founded on the worst types of polemical subjects that is better left alone or treated by professionals in that matter..

Ps. Your rights end when others are harmed. This is when the liberty of expression " in all its forms " should be under supervision.

It has been so long, that I didn't felt speechless in front of a movie, specially a middle eastern one... I had the great chance to see the movie Tannoura Maxi ("Heels of War" - the English title) in Dubai International Film Festival few days ago, and I felt not just in love with every single frame of it, but it won the privilege of touching me straight into the heart... And as a first film for a new Lebanese Director I really wasn't expecting that much of maturity and richness, I wasn't expecting that I will be confronted to a brilliant film!

Dealing with the story of his own parent in that sensual and erotic way as well as exposing the shades of his country in a certain critical period was astonishing! I never expected that a Lebanese artist will have the boldness to dig into his privacy with no restraint, to broadcast his little secret with good conscience...

I cried more than once, and each time I wasn't able to explain why am I crying... It is not a drama at all, but Emotions are that much high in many scenes to a point that you feel yourself a baby in a need of the affection of your own mother... Feminine sides in me was boosted.. I felt that I should express my love more, that I should be proud of my feelings... Heels are not the ones of war, but the ones of love, passion, sensuality, resistance... The war is not between countries, religions, states... but between human feelings, between love and oppression, between freedom and traditions...

The Director gives the viewers the privilege of sharing his emotions by keeping them on the threshold of their houses... He will peek through door locks, more specifically the one belonging to his parent's room... Idols will become puppets manipulated by the hands of their own descendant.

Briefly, I was astonished with the quality and the cinematic language of this unreleased yet Lebanese Movie... I felt from the first scenes that am in front of a poetry, in front of a wonderful painting, of a mature treatment of a middle eastern story... I felt in Love with the movie without knowing why... I wanted to contemplate every shot, to analyze every move, every eye contact... I enjoyed the music to the maximum, and specially the ending song... I wanted to applaud high in the end, but same time I wanted to stop the cheers of the people in the theater to listen to the breathtaking final song...

I felt that I want to go back to Lebanon and to feel for real the familiarity of every actor, of every true and authentic situation... Yes it is a 100% authentic movie! Other than Nadine Labaki, I think Joe Bou Eid is the only Director who is dealing in a serious way with the Lebanese Cinema... So proud of having like this film out, so proud that Lebanon started showing the world that he contains great artists who need just the chance to expose and show their talent and their wonderful Potential!...

I will not stop watching this movie, (anyways it is a movie that needs to be watched minimum twice...) a movie that portrays crossing a stage, cutting the umbilical cord, a movie that speaks to everyone who is experiencing any kind of relationship, any kind of transition, to everyone who is maturing or moving on the path of discovery and revelation...

Choosing to see Tannoura Maxi is one of the easiest choices there is to make, if you are as crazy as I am about Visual Storytelling.

Nowadays, there is so much emphasis on verbal communication in modern cinema; the audience has lost their ability to indulge in beautiful visual communication, where the story unfolds in front of your eyes rather than inside your ears.

There is much to say about the well composed film that takes a rather daring step towards projecting the essence of chemistry, and love between two people.

The film explores the undying tension, the untamed desire, and the seduction that draws from lust, in a time of war, pain, and grief.

It was quite a surprise going inside every character's persona in that personal way, where the audience feels much like a trespasser inside a person's head, hearing about their inmost flaws, wants, and needs. It elevates the movie into becoming somewhat of a private diary, unveiling itself slowly as the movie gradually comes to an end; where you finally find yourself relating towards this character rather than that, or the other rather than this; that's how personal it gets.

The music was as beautiful as the breathtaking images that resemble hand drawn memories.

The sound design was well crafted, and the era which the film took place was loyal to what it represents.

All and All, I'd say the movie sends me off to two places. One, it certainly takes me to a place of warmth, love, and struggle. Two, it takes me into the deviated mind of a curious little boy, who had the love to make some of the images inside his head for the public to see.

And my mom always wore heals too, even when going to get water from the well.

When personal parentheses open, they give time for meditation, imagination… A powerful movie that leads to a real reflection in a period where movies are just an entertainment tool for pop corn grabber...

The images that remains in your head after watching this movie gives you pleasure even more than the moment you are watching it… An aesthetic based on the slow images at times but also on careful framing and cutting related to the emotion felt by the characters or the viewers themselves.

The thrust of aesthetics and film structure sent the film in certain moments, to a meditative- contemplative level, on a journey through time in an imaginary space ... From here, the relation between memory and the unreal create themes that justify the modern treatment sometimes.

The first intention was to confront the viewer with a film about a true story reproduced by the imagination of a child narrating it in his own way. In storytelling, the genre 'tale' is revealed… and the desire to keep a sensational spell, threw me without feeling in the romantics and particularly the colorful poetry.

An unexpected avant-guard treatment for a movie done with a lot of bravery, for a First Film signed by its director...

Amazing scenery of Love in contemporary Cinema… I had a lot of expectation for this film but when I saw it, my expectation was much lower then the power of this controversial movie… Some adored it, some other had their personnel opposite point of view, but for my side I never felt taken by an Arab movie as much as I was taken by "Tannoura Maxi"…

From the first image, the actress captivated me… she exhorted her inner demons and hooked me... She delivers from her insides, water, blood, and a living creature.

A woman who continues to capture attention, to capture us as a shutter would in a dark room, in his world of demon women, and innocent girls. She comes from the outside world, and penetrates the village, taking away the community's virginity. A little refugee girl becomes the refuge of a man, about to undertake in a mission of life. She comes as a matador to prove herself and bear out her passion. Never lacking Red, she will mark the stones, soil the village, and invade the monasteries. She will transform the cassock into a Maxi skirt. She will fall madly in love, and will drown in a revolted sea of agitated waves. Silently, she will deploy her charm, and will function through her emotions. She becomes unveiled when facing love, and her fragility suddenly becomes manipulative.

A Film that's much more like a moving modern art, and a moving Romanesque painting… Watching it several times is a must to get lost in each of it's wonderful shades...

A movie that gave me the desire to love, to think, to write about its small hidden and so interesting layers…

A narrator who has decided to peek through door locks … more specifically the one belonging to his parent's room. Idols who become puppets, manipulated by the hands of their own descendant. He digs into their privacy without restraint. He broadcasts their little secret with good conscience, and sometimes unconsciously…

Between the sacred and the profane, a sewing machine is in the act of stitching a hatching memory, a memory that seeks guiding points, among his toys, his photo albums, and his music box…

A memory of a child that arrogantly decides to exist before the meeting of his own parents, to even achieve attending their own marriage, to organize it, design it, imagine it, to film it… and above all to be put face to face with a camera that denudes, that unveils, that penetrates the absolute intimacy. The time machine will equate the 'sewing machine' that runs just as a negative roll would. A sewing machine with a series of Christmas lanterns that certainly served the small and old trees of grandmothers or old cousins decorating the plateau of an intimate shooting.

A child playing with the heels of his mother, who dances in her studio… What's in those boxes? Is it beads or buttons? Small toys or forgotten photo albums? Scissors? A story board? … A magazine of 82, Catherine Deneuve on the cover, existed on the set of that memory box, in the studio of a narrator who exhibits himself.

A real charming emotional movie to be definitely seen more than once… Eager to watch it again with in Italy in the very near future I hope.

I have just watched Tannoura Maxi, All I have to say is Wow! Coming from a MIddle Eastern background myself I have deeply been touched by this movie. The storyline, is realistic as can be, I felt like I was living every moment. From beginning to end I was captured, the scenery was excellent,I loved the vivid sets that hold true to Lebanon's beauty, the characters, the sublime humor and of course who can forget the unforgettable Love story in between the two main characters!

This movie holds true to its roots and storyline, it is a must watch for anyone who is from the middle east or anywhere in the world! If you are interested in viewing a truly organic love story, this is the movie for you!

Love!