The adolescent Alex lives with her mother Maia in Montreal. When a large box is delivered to their home during the Christmas holidays, Maia is unexpectedly confronted with her past. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige masterfully traverse multiple timelines between Beirut and Montreal to show Maia's teenage years in Lebanon during the civil war, while finding a formally highly inventive way to convey her memories and her momentary flashes from the past.
The adolescent Alex lives with her mother Maia in Montreal. When a large box is delivered to their home during the Christmas holidays, Maia is unexpectedly confronted with her past. The box – which is full of letters, recordings, and photographs that she sent to her best friend in Beirut in the 1980s – forces her to explore past memories, something that she has been stubbornly avoiding, But Alex secretly begins to delve into her mother’s past on her own… In their film, shown in competition at this year’s Berlinale, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige masterfully traverse multiple timelines between Beirut and Montreal, showing Maia’s teenage years in Lebanon during the civil war and inventively presenting her memories and fleeting flashes of the past.
Lenka Tyrpáková
102 min / Color, DCP
Director Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
/ Screenplay Gaëlle Macé, Joanna Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
/ Dir. of Photography Josée Deshaies
/ Music Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Charbel Haber, Guillaume le Braz, Rana Eid, Olivier Goinard
/ Editor Tina Baz
/ Art Director Maïa El Khoury, Mary Lynn Deachman, Franckie Diago
/ Producer Georges Schoucair, Christian Eid, Carole Scotta, Barbara Letellier, Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Jasmyrh Lemoine
/ Production Haut & Court
/ Coproduction Abbout Productions, micro_scope
/ Cast Rim Turki, Manal Issa, Paloma Vauthier, Clémence Sabbagh, Hassan Akil
/ Sales Playtime
Joana Hadjithomas (1969, Beirut) and Khalil Joreige (1969, Beirut). Joint filmography: Around the Pink House (Al bayt el zaher, 1999), Khiam (2000, medium-length, doc.), A Perfect Day (Yawmon akhar, 2005), I Want to See (Je veux voir, 2008), Memory Box (2021).
Playtime
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E-mail: [email protected]
Manal Issa
Actress
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