THIS FREE SCREENING IS PART OF THE 2026 LEBANESE FILM FESTIVAL – FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.LFF.ORG.AU

Constructed entirely from seven decades of home videos, news broadcasts, musical performances, and lost archival footage, this exuberant documentary offers a sensory journey across seventy years of Lebanese history. Moving fluidly from the glamorous 1950s through civil conflict to the modern era, the film shuns traditional voiceover narration in favour of an energetic supercut of collective memory. By capturing intimate family celebrations alongside public upheavals, the narrative highlights the uncanny resilience, humour, and spirit of the people of Beirut amidst relentless social transformation.

Directed and edited by Lana Daher, this inventive cinematic love letter to Beirut premiered to acclaim at major international film festivals, including the Melbourne International Film Festival. The film has been praised for its remarkable rhythmic editing and its deeply affectionate, unvarnished portrayal of a city constantly redefining itself through political turmoil and cultural endurance.

Following the sudden death of their father, the Dashwood sisters find their comfortable lives upended when they are forced to leave their family's grand estate. Moving to a modest cottage in the countryside, practical elder sister Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and impulsive romantic Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) must navigate the stringent expectations of 19th-century English society. And as they encounter potential suitors, both women find themselves enduring intense heartbreak amid romantic trials, as they each learn in time to balance both their heads and hearts.

Jane Austen's 1811 novel has been adapted many times for the screen, most notably with Ang Lee's 1993 version starring Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. That this vibrant and beautifully produced new take still manages to find something new to say by shining a modern new light on the tribulations of the Dashwood sisters is a true testament to the timelessness of Austen's tale.