Lina is twelve. She lives in Beirut of 1983 and is totally uninterested in war. She is interested, however, in her aunt′s 18-vear old maid, Siham. She follows her on secret dates like a chaperone and defends her interests, But Siham is oblivious to Lina′s generosity - almost as oblivious as Lina′s own father is to her. He is a destructive gambler to whom Lina is all but invisible. His gambling problem has turned the family′s lives into a nightmare. Daily life in a war zone is precious and frustrations and passions run high, overshadowing everything else. Young Lina is unaware of the existence of good and evil until she accidentally stumbles into the adult realm after realizing that Siham intends to run away for good. She feels that she has been betrayed, and soon craves the same revenge she sees everyday outside her middle-class home. Though not an autobiographical film, director Danielle Arbid is clearly familiar with life in a war zone. In the Battlefields is fundamentally a drama where the home serves as a second battleground.