رسالة من بيروت

This highly personal and original film is an attempt by the filmmaker to come to terms with her experience of war and current events in Lebanon. Saab is like a character in her own story, returning to a country and city she no longer recognizes. The film works through subtle transitions between fiction and documentary and a series of letters with a text written by Etel Adnan, whose novel ‘Sitt Marie Rose’, published one year earlier in 1977, Saab is considered to be the best novel about the Lebanese conflict. While traveling around Beirut and to South Lebanon, the filmmaker muses about the country, its politics, and censorship, listening to people who speak openly about their lives and what they hope for the future. The film was described as a panorama of Lebanese society and its problems, revisiting the history of Lebanon and the wages of occupation while showing people’s everyday life during a time of conflict.


As a special tribute, we honor the memory of Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab, by screening a restored copy of her documentary “Letter from Beirut”, in collaboration with Jocelyne Saab Association.


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Trois ans après le début de la guerre civile, la réalisatrice revient dans sa ville pour quelques mois. À cheval entre un pays en guerre et un pays en paix, elle éprouve du mal à se réadapter à la vie. Remettant en marche un bus, alors que les transports en commun ne fonctionnent plus, elle provoque un sursaut de normalité dans la ville en guerre : des gens montent dans le bus où ils voient un espace de sécurité.


Nous rendons hommage à la mémoire de la cinéaste libanaise Jocelyne Saab, en diffusant une version restaurée de son documentaire “Lettre de Beyrouth”, en collaboration avec l’association Jocelyne Saab.


Notre sélection pour le mois de décembre