The Lebanese Rocket Society

My interest in this film has very little to do with the fact that as a boy I read the book 'By Rocket into Planetary Space' written in 1929 by the rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth, Transsylvania. Or with the fact that I studied as a minor subject astronomy. But I bring with me some interest in the history and culture of the Middle East, which seems to be one prerequisite to like this work. Alike the Oberth effect which can be used in 'a maneuver in which a spacecraft falls into a gravitational well and then uses its engines to further accelerate as it is falling, thereby achieving additional speed'.

While the first two thirds are purely commented documentary, the film gains immensely in traction towards the end when phantasy overtakes in the form of a retrofuturistic anymated cartoon. A lot to be regreted. Not to have followed this story.

A poor use of excellent material. All the elements were there - a rocket science and space project in Lebanon in the 1960s, its abandonment, Middle East politics, the ethnic identity of the scientists, their age, the existence of film and photo archives, the reminiscences of the main protagonists, Beirut today - but they were all thrown in at once near the start, so that the second half of the film was, so to speak, running on empty. There was no suspense, and the really surprising things that the film makers had unearthed were not given the space to breathe. They also seem to have had a big budget but made little use of it. The recurring theme - why has this episode been forgotten in Lebanon? - was never addressed adequately.

We've got accustomed in recent years to documentaries being educational and entertaining at once, this film takes a crack at the latter, but falls short. The second half is a bit weak, as it follows the activities of the filmmakers, some current events, unrelated to the topic, and a far-stretched animated sequence of an imaginary future had this program never been aborted.

While this review is starting a bit negative, I'm actually glad to have watched the film. The educational side of the documentary is where it shines, as it unearths a story that no one of my generation knows about, and no one of the previous generations remembers. It brings to light a great amount of old photos and footages, of students, scientists and army men, experimenting with rocket launching, material that could been lost forever had no one looked for it. And most interestingly, the filmmakers locate some of the people who were involved, most of them in their late life now, and give them a chance to tell their accounts on film one last time, if not first, while they're still here.

8/10 cause, all in all, it's a good effort to document a piece of Lebanon's history otherwise forgotten.