Former management consultant Cyril Aris broke into directing with the hit mini-series Beirut, I Love You which aired on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation from 2011 to 2012.
A joint collaboration with then architect student Mounia Akl, the series – in which they both co-starred – followed the lives of twentysomethings living in Beirut as they navigated work, love and life.
Akl would go on to write and direct the 2021 feature Costa Brava, Lebanon, while Aris shot the making-of documentary Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, capturing the crew’s determination to shoot the film in the aftermath of the devastating August 2020 Beirut blast.
Some 15 years after their first collaboration, Aris has reunited with Akl for his debut feature A Sad and Beautiful World, which premiered in Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori this week.
The twentysomethings are now in their thirties and this first feature has a weightier tone tackling issues of parenthood, economic survival and migration, albeit with love and laughter.
Akl and Hasan Akil (Memory Box) star as childhood sweethearts Yasmina and Nino, who lose sight of one another to reunite in their late 20s, with their relationship developing in step with the tumultuous history of Lebanon.
“The film went through many drafts, but the real genesis was the question of whether or not it’s still worth bringing children into the world today, and particularly in a region like the Arab world,” explains Aris.
“In Lebanon, every generation has their own trauma associated with the country and the region. And at some point, it really makes you wonder if there’s really any hopeful future for future generations in Lebanon,” he continues.
“At the same time, it’s a place we’re all very deeply attached to, and we are very much in love with. And I think this is often reflected in our cinema, and the movies we make, and the kind of questions that we ask ourselves in our films.”
Aris explores the “sadness” and ‘beauty” of Lebanon, and more specifically Beirut, through the “polar opposite” characters of Yasmina and Nino.
“Nino is highly optimistic, wants a big family and remains attached to Lebanon. Yasmine is the complete opposite. I also wanted to use comedy and humor because they’re an inherent part of the Lebanese identity. This lust for life and the fact that we’re always laughing at everything.”
The film also tackles the so-called “third exodus” triggered by the 2019 financial crisis which was further exacerbated by the pandemic and Beirut blast.
“There was a period after the August 2020 port explosion when it felt like everyone was leaving and all businesses were shutting down. It really felt like the Beirut I knew no longer existed. People were leaving for the Gulf, Europe. It really felt like the country was falling apart,” says Aris.
“That feeling is so strange and so bizarre and so peculiar. And I really like to think that was the lowest point of my relationship with my country. I wanted to capture that feeling and try to replicate it in film.”
“But then it’s a very bipolar country. If you look at videos from this summer, you would hardly tell that there was a war just a few months ago,” he continues, referring to the fall 2024 flare-up in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which killed 4,000 people and displaced another million.
Aris wrote the character of Yasmina with Akl in mind although it was not a given that she would accept the role. The filmmaker and actress is currently based in the UK where she has directed episodes of Boiling Point, The Responder and the upcoming dynasty drama House of Guinness.
“Mounia and I have been working together for 15 years. It really started with the two of us grabbing whatever camera and having a passion for film. We kept collaborating along the way. I’ve cut and produced some of her work. She reads all of my scripts. We’re always involved in each other’s lives. She’s my creative soul mate,” says Aris.
Akl initially rejected Aris’ overtures for her to co-star, saying she was focusing on directing rather than acting at this stage of her career, but after reading the script she changed her mind.
“She identified with it and was like, ‘Let me think about it’. I told her, ‘Let’s do the whole exercise. I’m going to audition other people. I’m going audition you, and you’re going audition me.’ I did the whole exercise and still felt it had to be Mounia. At the same time, she came back to me saying, “I’ve been thinking about it. I understand this character and want to do her justice’.”
Akl returned to Lebanon in the early summer of 2024 for the shoot, ahead of director duties on House of Guinness back in the UK.
“She stopped being a director for like two to three months. We had an acting coach to help her, and she rehearsed with Hasan. She played the game and went all way,” says Aris.
Pre-production and the shoot in early summer of 2024 unfolded against the backdrop of the escalating conflict between Israel and militia group Hezbollah, with a full-scale Israeli offensive launching in September 2024.
The shoot had originally been scheduled for October 2024, because Aris’ wife was due to give birth over the summer, but lead producer George Schoucair at Abbout Productions had the foresight to move the production date forward.
The shoot was impacted nonetheless by a flare-up in tensions between Iran and Israel – after the latter killed a number of top military officials in an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April 2024. Iran retaliated with an attack involving more than 300 missiles, drones and UAVs.
“We were shooting, and we got news of the Iranian missiles, and then we saw them in the sky. I was like, ‘I guess let’s do one more take, guys.’ There was a constant fear that this movie could stop at any point’.”
According to Schoucair, Aris got news that his wife was giving birth as they were filming the last shot on June 6, cried “cut”, and then rushed off to catch the plane.
Schoucair and Aris would then spend the fall touring co-production markets across the MENA region, including Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops and the Red Sea Souk in Saudi Arabia, raising money to complete post-production.
Currently based in the U.S., Aris is working on a screenplay for a second feature set in Lebanon as well as a pan-Arab TV series.
In spite of the struggle behind getting A Sad and Beautiful World off the ground, Aris has faith in Lebanon and its film industry.
“I always feel like on its last legs, and somehow it resurges. There is a culture of filmmaking… we have the talent, the know-how, and the crews,” says Aris. “There were a bunch of films scheduled that were postponed because of the war, but they’re back at it now. We’ve adapted and we’re shooting again.”
A Sad and Beautiful World is lead produced by Schoucair at Abbout Productions, Jennifer Goyne Blake and April Shih at West Hollywood-based Diversity Hire as well as Georg Neubert and Jasper Wiedhöft at Leipzig-based Reynard Films. Paradise City is handling international sales.
Check out the trailer for the film below:
