Directed by Beirut-born Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Memory Box (دفاتر مايا) has won yet another award in the U.S.
After the film won two awards at the Mizna Arab Film Festival, Memory Box received the Audience Award at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco.
The Canadian, Lebanese, and French drama movie was the first Lebanese film to be nominated for the Golden Bear top prize.
More recently, it was also nominated as Lebanon’s official entry to the 2023 Oscars for Best International Feature Film.
Produced by Abbout Production, Memory Box stars Rim Turki, Manal Issa, Paloma Vauthier, Clemence Sabbagh, and Hassan Akil.
The film storyline starts in Montreal, Canada, when, on one Christmas eve, Maia, who lives with her daughter Alex and her mother, receives a box of memorabilia from France.
The box contains all things that Maia sent from Beirut to her friend Liza in Paris during the Lebanese civil war.
After trying to hide painful and shocking secrets, Alex dives in and learns in a series of flashbacks about her mother’s teenage self.
Here is the trailer:
