User Reviews

This is interesting work from Lebanon on an unusual subject--predominantly dealing with a well-heeled Christian man who employs a Muslim barber as a stand-in to replace his regular barber who has been hospitalized.

At the prima-facie level, the film provides humor for entertainment. The barber earns 10 times what he should be paid. This leads to avaricious dreams and silly banter about the USD 50 banknote. It also provides humor for the viewer as the barber gets terrified at the thought of losing the new-found benefactor/customer.

At another level, there is a stark contrast made by the film of the financial and social disparity between the two sets of clients of the barber.

Not to be missed is the passing comment on lottery tickets and the fast-track dreams to success.

The performance of the barber was noteworthy. The film was on show at the on-going International Film Festival of Kerala, India.

Cinematically the strengths of the film were limited to visualization of monetary dreams of the barber and an imaginary conversation between the rich Christian client and his dead wife. The film underlines the often-seen Lebanese fixation with economic issues that dominate daily lives of the common man in Beirut and social issues (new barber shops that open with untrained barbers, new flyovers and roads that get dug up soon after they are opened for traffic, etc.). The humor of these comments will be apparent to those who have visited Beirut recently.

All in all, an interesting and a very realistic short film.

well if i had to chose one movie to show a foreigner a Lebanese movie it would be either "after shave" by Hany Tamba or "West Beyrouth" by Ziad Doueiri.

To start with the lighting and cinematography of Emmanuel Soyer really frames the movie and does justice to the wonderful location that was chosen for the movie, the writing is just enough just where it should be, and the actors are all amazing in their parts... it's only one hair short of perfect, and i can't even really say where perhaps a little in the ending... And not to forget the music of Khaled Mouzannar which really meets the film's atmosphere...

All in all watching this short movie is a treat it made me wish it was longer. I hope for Hany Tamba to get the chance to work on a feature film, i know i am waiting for it.

i've read the movie as a metaphor of Beirut. how it lives with the souvenirs of its old sunny days. the characters are very authentic, the acting is simple, the idea is interesting: how a man lives his loneliness, between was is true and what is from his pure imagination. Julia Kassar is very impressive by her acting. not to forget to mention the rhythm and how the movie "plays" on 2 different level of time " the past and the present". it made the invisible become visible! by it simple 3 characters it gave an idea of the life in Beirut, the routine, the dreams, the future(s), the souvenir. hope that with this movie the Lebanese cinema will start to rise. the Lebanese cinema needs this kind of authentic movies.