“WHERE DO WE GO NOW?” My rating: B (Opening June 22 at the Tivoli and Glenwood at Red Bridge)
110 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
The only thing men love more than fighting is sex.
That ancient truth, recognized in 411 BC in Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” (a comedy in which the women of a Greek city withhold sex until their husbands stop making war), gets an updating in “Where Do We Go Now?”, the latest from Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Caramel”).
Labaki wastes no time in letting us know that her film, set in an isolated village, should be viewed as a fable.
It begins with the town’s women walking to the local cemetery to clean the graves of their dead menfolk. They’re evenly divided between Christian and Muslim. But they are united by grief.
Slowly their footsteps become synchronized to a percussive beat. The women begin moving their arms and gesturing in unison.
It’s a lot like one of choreographer Pina Bausch’s curious rhythmic marches, and it tells us up front not to expect too much realism over the next 110 minutes.
The little burg — half Christian, half Muslim — has been cut off from the rest of the world for most of a generation. The sole bridge into town was destroyed long ago in sectarian fighting. The only access is a narrow trail surrounded on both sides by steep dropoffs.
Since nothing bigger than a motorbike can negotiate the trail, most of the villagers rarely leave.
For years now an uneasy peace has been maintained by the women working in cahoots with the local priest and imam. They burn newspapers lest their husbands, brothers and sons learn about the religious infighting that continues in Lebanon. When someone rigs an old TV to pick up a faint signal, the ladies sabotage the effort lest the evening news set off a local bloodbath.
Butler's Cinema Scene 