Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia, from 13 to 18 years old, sent from Beirut to her best friend who left for Paris to escape the civil war. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.
Direction
Directors use real family archives — this is autofiction with receipts.
Cinematography
Grainy 16mm past bleeds into crisp digital present.
Acting
Manal Issa's young Maia burns with chaotic, war-torn longing.
Director
Joana Hadjithomas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hadjithomas and Joreige are Lebanon's foremost archivist-artists; this completes their 'Arab Image Foundation' trilogy on forgotten Middle Eastern visual history.
The teenage Maia's tapes are genuine 1980s recordings of Joana Hadjithomas herself — her actual adolescent voice, preserved for decades.
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