The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“Jocelyne Saab’s lyrical yet unsparing film savours moments of resilience and grace … A tender and vibrant love poem to Saab’s native Beirut.”

Imogen Sara Smith, MUBI Notebook

A footprint in ink and a handprint in blood—the poles of art and war tug at the fabric of life in Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab’s fiction debut, set amid a crumbling Beirut ravaged by years of civil combat. At its centre is the relationship (platonic, for the most part) between Samar (Hala Bassam), a local teenager acclimated to everyday bloodshed, and Karim (Jacques Weber), a fortysomething painter desperate to escape the perpetual horror. Their interwoven stories, by turns neorealist and fabulist in Saab’s telling, open up a wider, documentary-principled portrayal of a war-shattered city and its citizens—particulary its children, the next soldiers on the frontline. Nouvelle vague icon Juliet Berto makes a memorable appearance; Antonioni screenwriter Gérard Brach had a hand in fashioning the script. This restoration of Saab’s original cut of the film, unseen since its Directors’ Fortnight premiere, is 12 minutes longer than the version that was distributed theatrically.

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

“A striking meditation on humanity’s struggle in the face of unthinkable horror.”

NYFF 2025