Where Do We Go Now? (Arabic: ????? ????? w halla' la wayn‎, French: Et maintenant, on va où) is a 2011 film by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki. The film premiered during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival as part of Un Certain Regard . The film was selected to represent Lebanon for the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. The film won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

Where Do We Go Now? Tells the story of a remote, isolated unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The village is surrounded by land mines only reachable by a small bridge. As civil strife engulfed the country, the women in the village learn of this fact and try, by various means and to varying success, to keep their men in the dark, sabotaging the village radio, and then destroying the village TV.

The story begins with a boy named Roukoz, whose job - along with his cousin, Nassim - is to venture outside the village and bring back much-needed merchandise such as soap, utensils, newspapers, lightbulbs. Roukoz lives with Nassim's family, and it is made clear that Nassim has lost his father. Roukoz tries to fix the church speakers, and falls off his ladder, crashing into the cross and snapping it in half. Other characters include the village mayor and his wife Yvonne (Christians), the cafe-owner Amal (played by Nadine Labaki), Rabih (the village painter and Amal's love interest) and his sister, Issam (Nassim's brother) and his wife Aida, and the village priest and village sheikh. The next day, the congregation is gathered in church to celebrate the Sunday mass; The Priest preaches about the need to fix the church, and blames the broken cross on the wind, telling churchgoers to keep their cool and that their fellow Muslims have nothing to do with it. Sometime later the Imam discovers that some goats have found their ways into the mosque, and urges the Muslims not to blame the Christians for what had happened. As people starts to gather, however, a Muslim man blames the Christians for what has happened and a small fight ensues.

The village is slowly drawn into greater violence; but the women get along beautifully and conspire together to keep their men from fighting, even hiring Eastern European dancers to entertain their men. But as Nassim is killed in a skirmish between Christians and Muslims while on an errand in a nearby town, the women are faced with a real test of wills. In an attempt to control the situation, they drug the men by mixing hashish inside sweet pastries and remove their weapons from the village. This ensured that fighting would not resume in the village during or after Nassim's funeral.

Cast

• Nadine Labaki as Amale
• Claude Moussawbaa as Takla
• Layla Hakim as Afaf
• Antoinette Noufily as Saydeh
• Yvonne Maalouf as Yvonne (from DOUMA)
• Adel Karam as the bus driver
• Mustapha Sakka as Hammoudi
• Mustapha El Masri as Hanna

Release

The film was part of the official selection at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard parallel competition. The film was released on 14 September 2011 in France and 22 September 2011 in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Production

The shooting of Where Do We Go Now? lasted for 2 months from 18 October until 18 December 2010. Khaled Mouzanar, Labaki's husband, composed the music for the film. The movie was released in Cannes in May 2011. 

The film was shot in Taybeh a village near Baalbek because the town contains a Church neighboring a mosque; other towns were used during the shooting like Meshmesh, Douma, and Jeita's Church Al-Saydeh.

Awards and nominations

• Un Certain Regard official selection during Cannes 2011.
• Ecumenical Special Mentions during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
• Won the François Chalais Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
• Selected in the Special Presentations at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival.
• Won the People's Choice Award at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival
• Selected at the 2011 San Sebastián International Film Festival
• Won the Award To The European Film, Audience Award at the 2011 San Sebastián International Film Festival.
• Won the Byarad d'Or at the 2011 Namur Film Festival
• Won the Audience Award at the Films from the South 2011 International film festival.
• Won the Audience Award for the Best Narrative film at the 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Do_We_Go_Now%3F

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4463554/news

http://www.upcoming-movies.com/Articles/where-do-we-go-now-et-maintenant-on-va-o-movie-clips-and-images