CHENNAI: A compelling work about love, life and loss packaged neatly and executed with brilliance, “Memory Box” competed for the Golden Bear at the recent Berlin International Film Festival. Part of the reason why the movie is so touching is its story and script, which drew inspiration from Lebanese co-director Joana Hadjithomas’ letters and diaries penned during her teens. Made with Khalil Joreige – the duo is known for their range of documentaries, features and performance art – “Memory Box” covers three generations of women from 1980s war-ravaged Beirut to icy Montreal. The writing by the directors is tight and leaves no room for confusion in this back-and-forth narrative.
A warm, dense tale about women.
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Lebanese filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige explore the importance of personal and historical memory in a drama bouncing between Montreal and Beirut.
The tragedy of the Lebanese civil war extends far beyond the 1980s and into the third generation of a family resettled in Canada in the affecting drama
Memory Box. It marks the first film in nine years from the award-winning team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whose work has ranged freely over feature films, docs, installations and performance art.
Though
Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs to the staid tranquility of modern-day Montreal. It bows in competition in Berlin, where the directors’ intelligent probing into our perception of the past shoul
‘Memory Box’: Film Review | Berlin 2021 Jon Frosch MEMORY BOX
The tragedy of the Lebanese civil war extends far beyond the 1980s and into the third generation of a family resettled in Canada in the affecting drama
Memory Box. It marks the first film in nine years from the award-winning team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, whose work has ranged freely over feature films, docs, installations and performance art.
Though
Memory Box shows the sophisticated modernity of their artistic approach, it is also one of the most accessible of their films, thanks to a winning cast of fine actresses and an engrossing back-and-forth timeline that jumps from wartime Beirut under the bombs to the staid tranquility of modern-day Montreal. It bows in competition in Berlin, where the directors’ intelligent probing into our perception of the past should find appreciation.
Memory Box Review: A Collection of Family Artifacts Spark Links to the Past lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.