Skies of Lebanon (2020)
(Sous le ciel d'Alice)
Country: FR
Technical: col 90m
Director: Chloé Mazlo
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Wajdi Mouawad, Isabelle Zighondi
Synopsis:
A Swiss-born governess who has married into Lebanese culture leaves Beirut amid the worsening civil war. As she writes to the husband she leaves behind, she reflects on her joyful and harmonious life there with her new extended family, and on the absurdities of the sectarian conflict.
Review:
Taking its title from the husband's dream of designing a rocket that will take a Lebanese into space, Mazlo's film is nothing if not whimsical, and indeed transmutes the bitter events of the 1970s into surreal tableaux, split-screen telephone conversations or pieces of animation. The fondness for her native culture finds its voice in the character of this woman who adopts it as her own and falls in love with its sounds and colours, its poetic optimism. Unfortunately, as a narrative it is uncompelling, and the mise-en-scène (or budget) too theatrical to convey these charms with solidity. For example, a building sustains serious bomb damage sufficient to trap a man under a laboratory bench, but the windows are left intact.
(Sous le ciel d'Alice)
Country: FR
Technical: col 90m
Director: Chloé Mazlo
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Wajdi Mouawad, Isabelle Zighondi
Synopsis:
A Swiss-born governess who has married into Lebanese culture leaves Beirut amid the worsening civil war. As she writes to the husband she leaves behind, she reflects on her joyful and harmonious life there with her new extended family, and on the absurdities of the sectarian conflict.
Review:
Taking its title from the husband's dream of designing a rocket that will take a Lebanese into space, Mazlo's film is nothing if not whimsical, and indeed transmutes the bitter events of the 1970s into surreal tableaux, split-screen telephone conversations or pieces of animation. The fondness for her native culture finds its voice in the character of this woman who adopts it as her own and falls in love with its sounds and colours, its poetic optimism. Unfortunately, as a narrative it is uncompelling, and the mise-en-scène (or budget) too theatrical to convey these charms with solidity. For example, a building sustains serious bomb damage sufficient to trap a man under a laboratory bench, but the windows are left intact.
(Sous le ciel d'Alice)
Country: FR
Technical: col 90m
Director: Chloé Mazlo
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Wajdi Mouawad, Isabelle Zighondi
Synopsis:
A Swiss-born governess who has married into Lebanese culture leaves Beirut amid the worsening civil war. As she writes to the husband she leaves behind, she reflects on her joyful and harmonious life there with her new extended family, and on the absurdities of the sectarian conflict.
Review:
Taking its title from the husband's dream of designing a rocket that will take a Lebanese into space, Mazlo's film is nothing if not whimsical, and indeed transmutes the bitter events of the 1970s into surreal tableaux, split-screen telephone conversations or pieces of animation. The fondness for her native culture finds its voice in the character of this woman who adopts it as her own and falls in love with its sounds and colours, its poetic optimism. Unfortunately, as a narrative it is uncompelling, and the mise-en-scène (or budget) too theatrical to convey these charms with solidity. For example, a building sustains serious bomb damage sufficient to trap a man under a laboratory bench, but the windows are left intact.