Skies of Lebanon

Sunday, September 11, 2022, at 10 am Cinema Art Bethesda returns to the Landmark Bethesda Theater for a new season of IN-PERSON screenings.

Skies of Lebanon [Sous le ciel d’Alice] combines live action with animation to create a vivid picture of Lebanon in a poetic blending of a personal and political story, inspired by the family history of filmmaker Chloé Mazlo. She crafts a touching and heart-breaking story of love during wartime based on her grandmother’s memories of life during the Lebanese Civil War.

In the 1950s, Alice leaves her Swiss homeland for Lebanon, a sunny and exuberant country where she enjoys the best years of her life, including falling in love with a Lebanese man. In the 1970s, civil war descends on Alice’s paradise, and she does her best to protect herself from the inevitable, refusing to give in to despair.

Alba Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) plays Alice; Wajdi Mouawad (author of the play Incendies, which was the source material for Denis Villeneuve’s 2010 film) plays Joseph, an astrophysicist with dreams of sending his fellow citizens into space.

Skies of Lebanon, an official selection for the 2020 Cannes International Critics’ Week, uses animation to present the emotional undercurrents felt by the characters.