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 Already facing tight COVID
restrictions and a crippling financial meltdown,
Akl made the choice to go ahead with the
production in the aftermath of the explosion,
which killed more than 200 people and devastated
large parts of the capital.
"Lebanon is going through such a hard time and
this film is a love letter to Beirut," Akl, 32,
told Reuters at the Venice Film Festival, where
the movie made its world premiere on Sunday.
"It's about the grief of a place that is no
longer what it was and the questioning on
whether you let go or you continue fighting for
a place that seems like it's not safe anymore."
Framed by an environmental and economic crisis,
the film follows the Badri family, which has
relocated to the mountains to escape the toxic
air and troubles of Beirut. In the safe-haven of
their seclusion, the parents grapple with a
sense of guilt over abandoning their activist
roots in order to provide a future for their two
daughters. Then a new garbage landfill is
suddenly built in front of their property, and
as rubbish begins to pile up, so too rise the
tensions in the family.
Award-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki and
Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri star in the roles
of the parents. While she feels nostalgic for
her old life, he is bitter and angry.
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 "I am personally living a bit
like the Badri family with my own family, we
live in the mountains far away from Beirut,"
Labaki told Reuters. "I live
that same struggle, that same contradiction;
should we stay isolated and protect our family
in that way and our children, or should we go
back and resist in a way and be part of the
change and the part of the resistance?"
The 47-year-old filmmaker said bringing the
movie to Venice, where it is screening in the
competitive sidebar Orizzonti Extra section, was
momentous.
"It's the worst time in our history. So I think
even to be here now and presenting the film and
be able to somewhat smile and be happy about
what we've done is a miracle. It's a complete
miracle."
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Dan
Grebler)
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