Press Reviews

What Hassan Zbib attempted and succeeded to show, beyond the ever-present destruction of war, was the intensity and the richness of the discussions that spontaneously erupted, even among the still smouldering ruins. Creative Chaos is more than just a documentary. This infinitely tender work is first and foremost an ode to mothers everywhere – starting with the director’s own mother – to the land in South Lebanon, and to its people, who through the ordeals they suffer are infused with poetry and wisdom.
- Marc YARED
Arabies – Cinéma
“Le Sud Liban àl’honneur”
December 2008
Read original article (in French)

We get the same feeling of urgency and bravery when confronted with images from war-torn South Lebanon, in 2006, in the film Creative Chaos by director Hassan Zbib, who rushed home from Paris, with his camera on his shoulder, at the start of the Israeli bombardments.
- Alexis CAMPION
Journal du Dimanche
18 August 2008
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Offering the director a tour of the ruins of her house, an elderly lady asks him what is the point of filming all this. It is clear to her that Lebanon is a country destined to suffer. “What good is it? What use are all these pictures?” Hassan Zbib does not answer, and we ask ourselves what we would have answered in the same situation. Perhaps we should simply be happy that his camera was, one day, able to record the voice of his brother, Abbas, in his Lebanese garden, in a moment that restored faith and humanity.
- Pierre Crézé
Review for the Lussas
“Etats Généraux du Documentaire”

In the midst of a population torn between hatred and a desire for peace in a country where everything has to be rebuilt, the mother appears as a peacemaking heroine…
except when she talks of Abbas, who wants to transport 300 kilos of olives in a single trip, at the risk of once again breaking the car ! These anecdotal episodes create a spirited alternative to official history as cooked up by the media.
Read full article in “Regards Neufs” (with English translation), from the Visions du Réel journal in Nyon, Switzerland

Audio interview with director Hassan Zbib on Radio France Internationale (in French)
Listen to interview
(Section of interview with Zbib starts at 09’45” of the 2nd part of the programme “Songes d’une Nuit DV”)

Interview with director Hassan Zbib in the daily journal of the festival “Cinéma du Réel,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Read Interview (in French)

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