Nadine Labaki directs and stars in her new film, “Where Do We Go Now.” It opened last year in Lebanon to perhaps the greatest buzz in the country’s recent cinematic history. Screenings were sold out across the country. Theatergoers had to buy tickets days in advance for evening screenings. One major mall showed the film in two theaters, and even then, the screenings were still sold out for nearly a month.   

"Where Do We Go Now" was successful because it breached the often unspoken divisions between the citizens of this country of four million people and 18 different religious sects. The film addressed those political and religious differences directly, and portrayed experiences and a reality that all Lebanese can relate to.   

Left to Right: Oxana Chihane as Katia, Yulia Maroun as Tatiana, Anneta Bousaleh as Svetlana, Oksana Beloglazova as Olga and Olga Yerofyeyeva as Anna. (Photo by Rudy Bou Chebel ©, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

It tells the tale of an isolated mountain village in a country that is at war. The war is never seen directly, and the village is never named, but the characters are quintessentially Lebanese: the majority of the cast are non-professional actors, some from the three villages where the film was produced.