Memory Box

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On Christmas Eve in Montreal, Alex and her mother Maia receive an unexpected delivery in the post. Inside are the countless notebooks, cassette tapes and photos that Maia, between the ages of 13 and 18, sent to her best friend from 1980s Beirut.

Maia refuses to open this Pandora's box or confront its memories. Alex, on the other hand, is irresistibly attracted to these testimonies of an unknown past and discovers, between fantasy and reality, her mother's tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.

With these revelations, Alex will convince her mother to return to Lebanon, after 25 years of exile, to face the ghosts of her past.

Winners of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2017, filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (I Want to See, The Lebanese Rocket Society) question the role of memory in creating images and historical narratives. The pair has always shown an interest in the emotional processes associated with the trauma of war, and this time Joana’s own journals and tapes from 1982 to 1988 and Khalil’s wartime photographs build the story of Maia and Alex.

This film is F-Rated. The F-Rating is applied to all films which are directed by women and/or written by women. Find out more about F-Rating.

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