Lebanese director Randa Chahal Sabbag spins this bleak war drama about the brutal absurdity of the urban warfare of Beirut during the 1980s. Opening with the shocking image of kittens being blown apart, the film loosely follows the travails of Bernadette (Nada Ghosn), a naïve country girl sent to the city as a maid for a mansion long since abandoned by the owners. There she meets Therese (Renee Dick), a veteran house cleaner who takes her under her wing. One day, while accompanying her friend to the cemetery, she meets a rakish Arab militiaman, and the two fall in love.
The story takes place in an around Lebanon. It concerns Farid, a repentant Islamic fundamentalist and Charles, a French diplomat. Farid is prepared to give the French secret service a list of names of terrorists operating in France on the condition that they liberate a friend of his imprisoned in France. The deal is complicated by the fact that Farid and Charles are irresistably attracted to each other, which inflames great jealously in Charles' wife, Juliette, estranging the couple.
