02/09/2025 - VENICE 2025: In his feature-length fiction debut, Cyril Aris tells a love story unfolding in parallel with the joys and deep sorrows of a continually changing Lebanon

Mounia Akl and Hasan Akil in A Sad and Beautiful World

Presented in the Venice International Film Festival's Giornate degli Autori line-up, A Sad and Beautiful World [+see also:
interview: Cyril Aris
film profile] by Cyril Aris is an ode to the Lebanese director and screenwriter’s homeland which has had a lasting influence on his cinematographic output. After two acclaimed documentaries presented in Karlovy Vary (The Swing and Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cyril Aris
film profile], awarded a Special Mention by the competition jury), Cyril Aris is now leaning towards fiction to treat the audience to a film full of hope which extols the power of human connections and our capacity to come together to find the strength to carry on dreaming.

A Sad and Beautiful World speaks of a love story lasting over thirty years between Nino (Hasan Akil) and Yasmina (played intensely by the actress, screenwriter and director Mounia Akl, with whom Aris previously collaborated as an editor on his movie Costa Brava, Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). In parallel to their story and the magnetic bond which holds them together in spite of everything, the film depicts the instability of one particular country, Lebanon, which continually wavers between hope and moments of purest despair where everything seems to fall into chaos and uncertainty. In this kind of context, even the solidest of relationships can inevitably implode, yet, despite the shadow hanging over their future, Yasmina and Nino’s relationship manages to survive. Perhaps it’s their ability to laugh about life, to find a ray of sunshine in the most challenging moments and to dream when the future seems ominous which keeps them together. Between despair and senseless hope, the two protagonists cling onto love and the respect which binds them together, despite being very different deep down: she’s pragmatic and determined, while he’s extroverted and unpredictable. The film explores the dilemma hanging over them like a light yet persistent fog: is it still possible to imagine a future in Lebanon? What if emigration were the only possible way to provide their daughter with a different kind of life? The couple find themselves backed into a corner when Yasmina discovers an opportunity to move to Dubai for work.

Delicately exploring the power of human connection, A Sad and Beautiful World not only shows the power of love and human ties, but also the salvatory power of humour which is present throughout the film. Laughing, loving and crying, whether from pain or joy, is the only way for the film’s characters to carry on hoping for a Lebanon which is finally free to exist.

Telling a love story, which also spans three decades, is undoubtedly risky, but the two protagonists’ complex and non-clichéd personalities stop the director from falling into the trap of sentimentalism. Enhanced by archive footage and Anthony Sahyoun’s imposing yet brilliantly thought-through score, the film leads the public between reality and fiction, hope and despair, and the need to escape and the fear of leaving; contradictory feelings which speak to the identity of a continually changing country.

A Sad and Beautiful World was produced by Abbout Production (Lebanon), Diversity Hire (USA) and Reynard Films (Germany). Paradise City Sales are managing international sales.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 31/08/2025: Venice 2025 - A Sad and Beautiful World

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Cyril Aris
© 2025 Isabeau de Gennaro for Cineuropa @iisadege