Daniel Barenboim is on tour with his Israeli-Arab orchestra in times of war. He regards it as an "independent republic" – and he has a message to pass on that is otherwise all but drowned out by the noise of the battlefield. By Sonja Zekri
Claude Chalhoub moves from world music to classical music, striving to find his place in unstable Lebanon. Stefan Franzen met with the Beirut violinist and composer
The Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's tragicomedy "Caramel" deals with the everyday lives and desires of five women. In the process, she exposes a society in which beauty and virility are the main currency. Fritz Göttler has seen the film
Daniel Barenboim is on tour with his Israeli-Arab orchestra in times of war. He regards it as an "independent republic" – and he has a message to pass on that is otherwise all but drowned out by the noise of the battlefield. By Sonja Zekri