Our senses are on alert from the opening scene of the luminous Lebanese film A Sad and Beautiful World. The “sad” part of the title’s equation is quickly established as we watch the film’s protagonist, Yasmina, being born in sync with a bombing in Beirut. It’s as if to say “welcome to the world, this world.” And yet that familiar filmgoer’s mental battle-readiness, as if bracing for a personal tale in a war-torn and otherwise troubled Middle Eastern nation, soon yields to the “beautiful” part of the story, an alternately tense and tender saga of the evolution of a love.
A touching and refreshingly non-cliched love story, director/co-writer Cyril Aris’s film goes deep and explores a cultural setting we’re unaccustomed to seeing on the screen in that light. Although the tale opens in a moment of crisis, suggesting Middle Eastern socio-military tumult, the focus is more on matters of the heart than the larger volatility of life in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s bid for this year’s International Feature Oscar qualifies as one of those satisfying the gods of both the crowd-pleasing and arthouse worlds. The film is beautifully shot and crafted, imbued with a dramatic aura yet guided by a graceful artistic hand.
The love story of Yasmina (Mounia Akl) and Nino (Hasan Akil) begins as a spark of pre-puppy love when they are smitten seven-year-olds and continues through marriage, children, and family struggles. He runs the restaurant Chez Nino, and she is a business consultant who cancels her planned transfer to Germany as their love is too powerful — the film generates a palpable chemistry and bond between them, beyond standard romantic movie norms. But she is reluctant to have children, hardened by the tensions in her life and the nation’s, reasoning that “I will not give this world another child to inherit our wounds.”
But along comes a sweet daughter, Amal, and a new family reality sweeps them into the next chapter of life and love.
Although the narrative is inherently epic, spanning a few decades, Aris manages to unfold the story in a chronology-weaving, time-fluid way with uncommon intimacy. Flashbacks to their childhood, with dreams of transcending the stresses they already face and escaping to a symbolic “island,” filter throughout the film, and keep us in touch with the psychic undertow of childhood memories.
Poetic imagery lines the way, with intercut images of water flowing and visions of the “island,” starry night canopies, and choppy slow-mo footage. Music by Anthony Sahyoun serves the right degree of sensitive coloration to the film, a model of restraint and subtlety. All the pieces seamlessly come together in this film.
An affecting and affirmative human/family love story, without flinching or extra artificial sweetener, A Sad and Beautiful World is a sad, sweet, funny, and ultimately beautiful film, with love and wartime in the wings.
A Sad and Beautiful World is playing at the SBIFF Film Center. For more information, see sbifftheatres.com
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