Abstract: Ziad Doueiri films the initiatory quest of his fictional alter egos in a city being pulled apart, where existing values are reversed. He develops a committed, phenomenological narration of the outbreak of war and the resulting disorder. This study examines the film’s numerous declarative instances and its identarian and political questioning to show that West Beirut is a nostalgic autofiction forming part of the “untamed memory” of the Lebanese Civil War.
