Who knows where?

Somewhere in Lebanon, a small village has managed to do what the rest of the country is in danger of being destroyed by: Christians and Muslims live peacefully side by side in the secluded village. Cut off from the outside world, the inhabitants have created a small idyll here, in which small disputes occur from time to time, but in which overall harmony and peace prevail. But when the situation in the surrounding countryside escalates, hatred and discord also threaten to spread in the small village. But the women don't want to accept that so easily. They come up with all kinds of tricks to keep their men in check. When the smaller tricks no longer work, they bring out the bigger guns. And so one day, a troupe of Ukrainian strippers suddenly appears at the gates of the village, their bus of course having broken down here purely by chance. Now the men are again too distracted to go at each other's throats. But when a tragic accident occurs, even the most imaginative tricks seem to fall short and the peace in the village threatens to be shattered forever...

With Who Knows Where To? actress and filmmaker Nadine Labaki delivers the long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed comedy Caramel. The idea behind her new tragicomedy is somehow genuinely charming and, for all its political poignancy, it's also directed with a refreshing lightness of touch. The way the women of the village try by all means to keep the conflicts of the outside world out of their community and not let the deep divide that exists between Christians and Muslims in their country spread to them as well is staged with a humorous naivety that, however, reveals an enormous profundity upon closer inspection.

Admittedly, some aspects of the production, such as song and dance interludes or the sometimes somewhat exaggerated acting of some of the actresses accompanied by wild gestures, take a lot of getting used to and elude the common viewing habits of most viewers. In some scenes, Labaki also can't quite balance comedy and drama, making the action feel a bit indecisive.

However, the message of the film is able to defy all the weaknesses and hang-ups, and in the end, it is able to prevail with a positive mood against the dramatic aspects of the story and against the very sad background. If you want to deal with the problems in the Middle East in an endearingly charming, sometimes amusing, then again moving way, and if you like to be entertained by more sophisticated program cinema fare, this somewhat different women's film can definitely be recommended to you. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp