Wine and War

WINE and WAR is a feature documentary about the history of winemaking in Lebanon and the resilience of the Lebanese entrepreneurial spirit seen through the lens of war and instability. The film looks at the challenges of making wine in a region that has always witnessed upheaval and yet one that around 7,000 years ago, through the Phoenician trading empire, gave the gift of wine to the world.

The documentary explains this historical journey, focusing on latter part of the 20th and the early 21st Centuries, with testimonies from those who fought to make wine in the 1975-90 civil war, the 2006 summer war, and those who continue to produce in the shadow of regional instability.

Inspired by the award-winning book Wines of Lebanon by Michael Karam, the wine makers' astonishing stories tell of bravery, determination, and survival and how wine can be a unifier and a metaphor for life, hospitality, civilization, and above all, a force for good in a region defined by turmoil and animosity. But above all, it is a compelling story that has not been told about a region that is not automatically associated with wine, one that shows the best side of Lebanon, its history, its tradition of hospitality, and its generosity of spirit.