AllMovie

For 18 years -- 1982 through 2000 -- wheeler-dealer Samir Farhat took full advantage of Israel's military presence in Lebanon by transporting a wealth of goods to the occupied country and turning the highest possible profit on all of them. With no reservations about shifting his ethnic identity or political allegiances at the drop of a hat, Farhat would slip into the military uniform best suited for the circumstance at hand, be it Israeli or Lebanese -- whatever happened to turn the highest buck. Neither was Farhat one to let morality or personal ethics stand in the way of negotiating with specific parties; business negotiation always came first. From month to month, year to year, Farhat consistently vowed to transcend the tumult surrounding him and take full advantage of the circumstance -- but in the process, his actions posited a key series of questions about whether he helped create war or whether the circumstance of war enabled him to exist and thrive. With her documentary Lebanon Dream, filmmaker Nurit Kedar constructs a penetrating and resolutely nonjudgmental study of this extraordinary character.