A Week of Lebanese Cinema 2015 / A Perfect Day / Lebanon, France, Germany 2005
Malek tries to persuade the attractive Zeina to give him a second chance. It’s also an important day for his mother Claudia because she has finally allowed her son to convince her to go and declare his father officially dead – fifteen years after the man disappeared. The third protagonist of this somber picture is chaotic and charismatic Beirut, in which past and present intermingle with painful intensity.
Contemporary Beirut. A tired-looking young man named Malek tries to persuade the attractive Zeina to give him a second chance. It’s an important day as well for his mother Claudia because she has finally allowed her son to convince her: they will go and declare his father officially dead – fifteen years after the man disappeared. After the end of the Civil War, 17,000 Beirut residents had gone missing, including the uncle of codirector Khalil Joreige. One of many tragic, open-ended events, this experience became the basis for the story of A Perfect Day, a critically acclaimed film which, despite its brooding tone, relays a message urging reconciliation with the sorrows of the past. Malek suffers from narcolepsy in combination with a syndrome that interrupts his breathing during sleep. The almost symbolic illness comes on more acutely in the chaotic city in which Malek lives with hundreds of thousands of others who focus intently on today while living with indelible memories of the past.
Karel Och
88 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
/ Screenplay Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
/ Dir. of Photography Jeanne Lapoirie
/ Music Scrambled Eggs, Soap Kills
/ Editor Tina Baz
/ Art Director Sophie Khayat
/ Producer Edouard Mauriat, Anne-Cécile Berthomeau, Georges Schoucair, Thanassis Karathanos
/ Production Mille et Une Productions
/ Cast Ziad Saad, Julia Kassar, Alexandra Kahwagi
/ Sales Celluloid Dreams
Joana Hádjithomas and Khalil Joreige were born in Beirut in 1969. As artists and filmmakers they have focused on both dramatic and documentary productions. In 1999 they wrote and directed their feature debut Around the Pink House (Al bayt el zaher). A year later they turned out the medium-length documentary Khiam, and in 2003 the documentary essay The Lost Film (El film el mafkoud; both movies were presented at a number of festivals, as well as at galleries and museums). In 2003 they returned to dramatic production with the short film Ramad. They have co-created art installations and both teach in their hometown. A Perfect Day (2005) premiered in competition at the Locarno festival.
Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 149 700 370
E-mail: [email protected]
Georges Schoucair
Producer
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