The Attack is the latest film from Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, adapted from the international best-selling novel of the same name by Algerian authorYasmina Khadra and, like many great films, the story behind the story sounds like the plot of a movie in its own right.  Mohammed Moulessehoul, who writes under the pen nameYasmina Khadra, fled his native Algeria in 2000 during the waning days of the Algerian Civil War in order to escape government censorship of his work as well as the possibility of violent or fatal reprisals from outside extremist sources and the government itself. He currently lives as a political exile in France. Doueiri, on the other hand, came under fire from the Arab League due to his decision to film his movie on location in Tel Aviv, Israel and use Israeli actors to play some of the roles. As a result of this unsanctioned collaboration, The Attack is essentially blacklisted in every Palestinian country in the Middle East, includingDoueiri's home country of Lebanon. With so much opposition toward both author and director, you might assume their works tackle some very controversial and inflammatory subject matter.

You'd be right.

Read Jared Lovrak's full review of The Attack in the Music and Culture section.

THE ATTACK, 2:15 and 7:05 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 3, The Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, $4.50-$9, 253.593.4474