DIRECTOR: JOANA HADJITHOMAS, KHALIL JOREIGE
STARRING: RIM TURKI, MANAL ISSA, PALOMA VAUTHIER
RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 42 MINUTES
The lives of three women are connected by a box that resurfaces containing notebooks, photographs and audiotapes.
STARRING: RIM TURKI, MANAL ISSA, PALOMA VAUTHIER
RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 42 MINUTES
The lives of three women are connected by a box that resurfaces containing notebooks, photographs and audiotapes.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“I feel I want to see everything, photograph everything.”
Memory Box is the newest International Feature submission from Lebanon. Directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, the film is about three generations of women: a grandmother, Teta, and mother, Maia, who lived through the Lebanese Civil War in the 1980s and the daughter, Alex, who begins to discover their story piece by piece.
The film begins with Alex receiving a box at her doorstep. It contains information from her mom’s childhood friend Liza Haber. Liza passed away recently from a car accident and these memories from the past are sent to Maia as a way of remembering her teenage years living in Beirut.
Maia’s mom is reluctant to share stories, or anything, about her past with her daughter, so Alex, in the middle of the night, begins to rummage through the “memory box” in search for answers.
And what she discovers is a detailed account of her mother’s teenage years growing up through a war-torn country told through journals and photographs that were sent to her best friend Liza, who had moved to Paris during this time.
Memory Box is a moving, artistic, nostalgic film about teenagers trying to be teenagers, who are fighting for normalcy when there’s nothing normal in their lives. The film is uniquely told as it’s from the viewpoint of Alex, as she pictures what is must’ve been like for her mother and grandmother to live in Beirut during these horrific times. And how hard it must’ve been to love, to study, to work, to live.
The film is a celebration of life. It’s a film of survival and about making the impossible decision to either stay and face death, or to leave everything behind and start completely new in a foreign country. Maia and her mother are just one family out of thousands who’ve had to run away from everything they’ve known. And watching their amazing story being told from the perspective of the newest generation is beautiful to have experienced.
(This review contains spoilers.)
“I feel I want to see everything, photograph everything.”
Memory Box is the newest International Feature submission from Lebanon. Directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, the film is about three generations of women: a grandmother, Teta, and mother, Maia, who lived through the Lebanese Civil War in the 1980s and the daughter, Alex, who begins to discover their story piece by piece.
The film begins with Alex receiving a box at her doorstep. It contains information from her mom’s childhood friend Liza Haber. Liza passed away recently from a car accident and these memories from the past are sent to Maia as a way of remembering her teenage years living in Beirut.
Maia’s mom is reluctant to share stories, or anything, about her past with her daughter, so Alex, in the middle of the night, begins to rummage through the “memory box” in search for answers.
And what she discovers is a detailed account of her mother’s teenage years growing up through a war-torn country told through journals and photographs that were sent to her best friend Liza, who had moved to Paris during this time.
Memory Box is a moving, artistic, nostalgic film about teenagers trying to be teenagers, who are fighting for normalcy when there’s nothing normal in their lives. The film is uniquely told as it’s from the viewpoint of Alex, as she pictures what is must’ve been like for her mother and grandmother to live in Beirut during these horrific times. And how hard it must’ve been to love, to study, to work, to live.
The film is a celebration of life. It’s a film of survival and about making the impossible decision to either stay and face death, or to leave everything behind and start completely new in a foreign country. Maia and her mother are just one family out of thousands who’ve had to run away from everything they’ve known. And watching their amazing story being told from the perspective of the newest generation is beautiful to have experienced.
