Miguel’s War

Miguel is a sensitive but self-destructive Lebanese gay man, haunted by the religious and political oppressions of his youth. Traumatised by his participation in Lebanon’s civil war — a failed attempt to prove he was a “real man” — young Miguel exiled himself in Spain. Living an openly gay existence in post- Franco Madrid, his life resembled one long Almodóvarian orgy, full of excess and sexual taboo-breaking. But more than 30 years later he’s finally ready to return to Lebanon and confront the ghosts of his past. Building a sometimes tense, sometimes humorous rapport with her subject, filmmaker Eliane Raheb mixes re-enactments, animation, soul-searching interviews and archive material to create a strikingly original and layered film about identity, memory and fantasy in a cathartic quest for emotional balance.