Safar Barlek

http://www.fairouz.com/fairouz/articles/icfs.html 　　A small Lebanese village rebelling against ottoman's occupation. One of the best Rahbani's films which fills you with longing for old times. Charming story, great actors and perfectly reproduced scenes. I just love the innocence and simplicity of people at that time, everybody is ready to sacrifice himself for the starving village. Got to watch it. 　　Awesome Movie. One of the best movies I have ever seen. Grew up watching this movie with a brilliant cast including the legendary fairouz and also famous TV actors from Abou Saleem's show like Fihman, Asaad and Abou Saleem himself. Story takes place when the Ottaman Empire, the Turkish, had colonized Lebanon and what a small group of citizens from a village decided to do to finally aid the suffering village folks from the hands of the turks. Comedy, Drama, Music, and Action. I would love to get my hands on a copy of this. Highly recommended for anyone from lebanon who wants to get a hold of national treasure of a movie. 　　The Plot: 　　The film is set around 1914 when Lebanon was under the Ottoman Empire rule. The empire enslaved men to work for free. Abdou goes to get Adla the engagement ring but he's arrested with others and are taken to cut lumber. Meanwhile the Ottomans prevent the wheat from arriving to certain villages because they want to defuse the ongoing resistance operations led by Abou Ahmed. Adla travels to where some say Abdou is held prisoner and she meets with Abou Ahmed. She along other villagers start helping the resistance get the wheat to the people. When they accomplish their mission, Abou Ahmed, freed Abdou and others escape because now they're wanted, but on a promise to return and to continue fighting. 　　Quick Notes: 　　Unlike Rings for Sale, this film took full use of the scenery of the countryside in Lebanon. In the credits, it's mentioned that the film was shot on location in as many as eleven towns and villages. The film itself is more complex than Rings for Sale which was originally a musical play. The production value of Safarbarlek is very high and it shows from the re-creation of old cities, costumes, etc. I only had two problems, one was with some parts of the script, for instance how did Abdou know that Adla is at Oum Youssef's when he was trying to escape from the Ottomans the first time? 　　Things to look for: 　　1. Ya Tayr and Alamouni are both shot while Fairuz walks down the hills and valleys of the small towns exposing beautiful landscape which is nice to see and kind of authenticate the setting of the film. 　　Miscellaneous information: 　　1. Both Assy and Mansour play roles in this film. Assy has a more predominant character. He plays Abou Ahmed, the freedom fighter. Mansour role however is very small. I didn't even get his name in the movie. 　　2. Click here for information on the soundtrack of the film. 　　1967 / Lebanon 　　Color / Approx. Time 115 minutes