Synopsis
بيروت الغربية
“Growing up is only half the battle.”
In 1975, the long slog of civil war has recently begun in Beirut. A high school student named Tarek is thrilled by all the chaos and upheaval because he no longer needs to go to school. Plus, he finds negotiations between West and East Beirut interesting. Tarek is accompanied by his buddy Omar as the two shoot Super 8 films of the tumult around them. The jovial mood takes a tragic turn when Tarek's parents start fighting over whether or not to flee Beirut.
Romance + Drama in Other Asia
53 Other Asia titles in our catalog blend the Romance and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding West Beirut itself).
The 1997–1999 Other Asia Window
West Beirut holds position #7 of 22 Other Asia films in the 1997–1999 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1990s Other Asia Landscape
1998 was the decade’s peak output year for Other Asia — 8 titles released, including West Beirut. Bars below show how the 1990s stacked up year by year (53 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 7 other Other Asia films in 1998.
The 102nd Other Asia title from Other Asia we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1949).
Our Other Asia catalog contains 547 titles in total (522 films).
Audience Engagement
38 audience reviews — more than 82% of Other Asia films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 72th percentile among Other Asia films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on West Beirut, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- teenage protagonist · 2
- super 8mm footage · 1
- lebanese civil war · 1
- 1970s · 19
- civil war · 8
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #110 of 547 Other Asia films indexed here (80th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.7 points above the Other Asia average of 6.6/10.
Among Other Asia Romance productions specifically: #11 of 86 (top 13%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Other Asia |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Lebanon, Belgium, France, Norway |
| Original Language | Arabic |
| Spoken Languages | Arabic, French |
| Production Companies | RTBF, Exposed Film Productions AS, Douri Films, Ciné Libre, ACCI |
| Runtime | 1h 45m |
| Release Date | September 1, 1998 |
| IMDb | tt0157183 |