Horizons / A Sad and Beautiful World / Lebanon, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia 2025
The Swing (2018), Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (2023), and this year A Sad and Beautiful World. Lebanese director Cyril Aris is a regular visitor to Karlovy Vary, and we are glad to have him. After showing two of his documentaries, this year we are presenting his fiction debut, a love story that, over the course of several decades, follows a couple who have, without exaggeration, been fated to be together. We watch Nino and Yasmina at various stages in life: when they fall in love, as an established couple, and as parents. All along, their relationship is somehow affected by the political reality of Lebanon. Mounia Akl and Hasan Akil excel as the mesmerizingly realistic couple.
Anna Kořínek
110 min / Color, DCP
Director Cyril Aris
/ Screenplay Cyril Aris, Bane Fakih
/ Dir. of Photography Joe Saade
/ Music Anthony Sahyoun
/ Sound Rana Eid, Lama Sawaya, Bassam Lebbos
/ Editor Nat Sanders, Cyril Aris
/ Art Director Hanady Medlej, Zeina Saab Demelero
/ Producer Georges Schoucair
/ Production Abbout Productions, Diversity Hire, Reynard Films
/ Coproduction Sunnyland Film, The Red Sea Fund
/ Cast Mounia Akl, Hasan Akil, Julia Kassar, Camille Salameh, Tino Karam, Nadyn Chalhoub
/ Sales Paradise City Sales
Cyril Aris. Selected filmography: Siham (2013, short), The President’s Visit (2017, short), The Swing (El-Marjuhah, 2018, doc.), Beating Hearts (2020, short doc.), Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (2023, doc.), A Sad and Beautiful World (2025).
Paradise City Sales
50 rue de Chabrol, 75010, Paris
France
Phone: +33 153 349 033
E-mail: [email protected]
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