It's easy and probably a bit simplistic to describe **Lebanon **as this year's Waltz With Bashir, but we're gonna do it anyway (hey, we're simple people). Like Bashir, its director, Samuel Maoz, is a veteran of the brief but brutal Lebanon War. Substitute dreamlike animation with a claustrophobic, tank-periscope view of the conflict and you're halfway there.
Based on Maoz's depiction of his experiences in the 1982 war, **Lebanon **is set in the cramped and sweaty confines of an Israeli Defence Force battle tank - the kind depicted in this new promo poster rumbling menacingly through a field of dead and dying sunflowers.
The message, and symbolism, is pretty obvious: don't expect this real-life war film to be a jaunty nostalgia ride. But, if Lebanon's reception at Venice - a 20-minute standing ovation - is anything to go by, though, *do *expect a war film well worth searching out when it arrives in cinemas on May 14.