Celebrated animator Chloé Mazlo makes her feature debut withthis strikingly original film inspired by her family’s life in theyears leading into the Lebanese Civil War. We begin in the 1950swith Alice, a young Swiss woman eager to escape her strait-lacedhome in the Alps by becoming a nanny in Beirut. She soon fallsin love with Joseph, a local astrophysicist dreaming of puttingthe first Lebanese national on the moon. As the lovers marry andstart a family, Mazlo combines meticulously designed live actionsequences with the occasional offbeat stop motion scene to createan irresistible picture of the glory days when Beirut was knownas “the Paris of the Middle East.” Unfortunately, the civil war soonsucks the joy out of Alice and Joseph’s relationship. Yet Mazlo seeksneither to elicit pity nor to edify: her considerable achievementhere is to convey the quotidian strain of life during wartime whilemaintaining a nearly bubbly tone through her attention to detail,distinctive compositions, inventive approach to character, andobvious fondness for eccentrics. Far from denying the horror ofkidnappings, army raids, and forced exile, Mazlo underlines thetragedy by contrasting these hardships with the exuberance of aplace and society that exudes love of life.
Cannes Critics Week 2020