“Time, this old enemy, gnaws at the traces of our passage on earth; exempted from this are the creators. Maroun, you will live” – thus did Gilles Jacob, legendary head of the Cannes festival, enthuse over the rich work of the prematurely deceased Lebanese filmmaker. In his best-known movie, Bagdadi takes up the true story of French journalist Roger Auque, who was kidnapped by Hezbollah and held for ransom for a year. The suspenseful drama depicts his everyday struggle to survive and his dogged efforts to maintain his sanity after being suddenly deprived of freedom as Beirut is turned upside down by civil war. Noteworthy is the picture’s highly original and complex characterization of his jailers, men who represent the captive man’s lone contact with the so-called normal world. One of the guards’ more memorable lines rings depressingly true: “This is Lebanon, man, don’t trust your eyes; things are never the way they look. There’s always a snake behind the rock.”