Celebrating their 20th birthdays, Yasmine and Leila decide to visit a renowned cinephile and collector, M. Farouk, to discover a Lebanon that they have never seen before. Searching for their past, film leads them on a path of memories and the two heroines immerse themselves in the universe of the films that, over a period of 40 years, contributed to creating the international image of Beirut as a shining star. In the context of the war that has destroyed this city, the projection of the films (chosen from more than 250) that the two girls set up gives the city back a taste of its own history, and a bit of hope for the future.

Distribution

Directed by Jocelyne Saab

script: Roland-Pierre and Philippe Paringaux,
copyright: Jocelyne Saab Association.
DOP: Roby Breidi
Son : Pierre Bouvier, Donnadieu, Jean-Pierre Delorme
Assistant son : Mohab Cheznan, Gaël Sicot
Montage : Dominique Auvray, Isabelle Dedieu
Assistants réalisation : Jean Senis, Harès Basile, Michèle Tyan, Ghassan Koteit, Alain Saouma
Assistants image : Emmanuel Soyer, Cataline Kalman, Gilbert Nahas
Lumière : Joël Peysson
Assistants lumière : Jihad, Victor Hanna, Laurent Godineau
Machiniste : Victor Hanna
Direction artistique : Seta Khoubesserian, Cyn Farah
Directrice de production : Morabela Pachecco
Administratrice de production : Lucie Combarel
Assistants de production : Corinne Ejeil, Joumana Fehmi, Antoine Guillot, Maïssa Issa
Production: Jocelyne Saab
Production : Balcon Production (France), Hessischer Rundfunk Arte & Arte Strasbourg, Aleph Production (Beyrouth)
Distribution : Michèle Tyan, Myrna Maakaron, Pierre Chamassian, Nessim Ricardou, Emile Accar, Khodor Alaedine, Abou el Abed, Khaled el Sayed

Press review

“A back and forth between the past and the question mark over the future that the Lebanese hope for after sixteen years of conflict.”

La Croix, 11 avril 1995

“Beirut, a ‘star’? An ironic, bitter comment on the city that was one of the greatest myths of the Middle East. At twenty years old today, the age of the two guides, can we imagine? Capital of the artificial, fed by the oil of the Emirates that flows into the banks, colonial brothel (it was a French colony), artificial showcase of a poor hinterland that flows at the foot of the buildings. These are all the clichés that Jocelyne Saab, the Lebanese director, has brought together from the silent era to today, with a passion of a cinephile where French and Eastern “cultures” clash. The false, the flashiness of a country that lives on a time bomb, the confessionalism, which privileges the Christian minority at the time of the rise of Arab nationalism. In the shadow of Nasser […] There is a work of memory.”

L’Humanité, 13 avril 1991

“The evening begins happily with a film by Jocelyne Saab that will interest and enchant all those who have not given up on being interested in Lebanon […] Two young girls, as pretty as they are piquant, persuade an old man who owns a cinema to show them his archives. And it is a whole history of the city that comes to life. Excerpts from the first orientalist films, clichés and postcards, Egyptian-style melodramas or slices of American-style B movies, militant, pro-Palestinian films from the 70s, signs of a deep crisis in society. Places, the old souks, the Grand Casino, the port of Byblos, the Place des Canons, and characters. Carelessness and nostalgia. Because these happy years ended in tragedy.”

TéléObs (Le Nouvel Observateur), 6 avril 1995

“A rather offbeat documentary, surprising in form and disconcerting in content. […] This charming stroll will delight film buffs.”

Libération, 11 avril 1995