By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer
On May 1, the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Beirut Film Society and Lebanon Cinema Days Canada premiered the film A Sad and Beautiful World (نجوم الأمل والألم) by the award-winning Lebanese director Cyril Aris at SFU Harbour Centre. The film, set in Lebanon, tells the love story of Nino and Yasmina as they grapple with the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) caused by a combination of sectarian divides between Lebanon’s major religious groups and spillover impacts from the violence between Palestinian liberation groups and Israel.
Though I was not able to attend the premiere at the time, I managed to watch the film and wanted to highlight my reflections. Throughout the film, the couple struggled to deal with the realities they were experiencing. The duo, who first met in childhood, are reunited later in life as the country falls into sectarian violence. This is coupled with their personal circumstances, such as their evolving personal goals and professional careers. All of this makes Nino and Yasmina wonder whether they would want to continue with their relationship and if they want to raise a family considering their unique and difficult circumstances — circumstances very out of their control.
Aris did an excellent portrayal of the innocence of young love and the impacts of the harsh sociopolitical realities of their context.
This is all the more painfully reflected outside the screen today as armed conflict, ranging from the genocide in Gaza to the war on Iran to continued civil strife in Myanmar, continue to negatively impact countless families — and young adults like Nino and Yasmina — around the world. The plot development shows resilience, through how the couple first met in their youth and distanced themselves from each other, yet came back time and again.
One of my favourite scenes in the film, which is portrayed in the trailer as well, is when Nino and Yasmina are innocently running through the streets of Beirut and are stumbling over cars. They then proceed to get yelled at by one of the drivers of one of the vehicles. They make a sprint to a tunnel, where they manage to escape the wrath of the angry man. The scene is full of music traditional to Lebanon and thus makes it a rich, cultural depiction of the culture that the film is set in, despite the turmoils of the socio-political backdrop. This scene is a reflection of the whole movie as it portrays a myriad of emotions of love that co-exist within the realm of war and peace. I believe that it is this combination of an overlying tension between love and society, the drama of two young adults attempting to balance the realities of life and romance, and the film’s overarching commentary on politics in West Asia is what makes A Sad and Beautiful World certainly worth watching.
