The Wooden Rifle

Five Lebanese in Beirut reflect on how their lives have been affected by their country's civil war in the 1970s and 80s.



Lebanon's civil war lasted from 1975 to 1990, and the capital of Beirut bore the brunt of the fighting and destruction.


More than 40 years after the start of the war, we meet five Lebanese in Beirut, most of whom lived in the capital during the conflict but were too young to be actively involved in it.

Even so, they have powerful memories of the events, their parents' stories and an enduring sense of the conflict's political, economic and cultural legacy.

We meet Kinda Hasan, a musician; Marwan Tahtah, a photojournalist; and Jihad Samhat who arrived in Beirut from California when he was 13, and has since founded Radio Beirut. All three were too young to be caught up in the fighting.