Memory Box is an engaging, intergenerational drama, written and directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. It’s the story of Maia, a Lebanese woman living in exile in Montreal with her mother and daughter, coming to a reckoning with her past.
The main protagonists are the mother, Maia, teenage daughter Alex and grandmother Teta, who’ve been living in Montreal since leaving Lebanon. One Christmas Eve, a huge “memory box” is delivered that contains journals, notebooks, cassette tapes and photographs that Maia had sent to her friend Liza in Paris during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s. The film uses them to switch adroitly back and forth between time periods, always moving the story forward and showing great empathy for the characters. The outstanding performances from the whole ensemble anchor the drama.
The filmmakers used Hadjithomas’s own journal and tapes between 1982 and 1988 to provide some content, and Joreige’s photographs are also included to great effect in the making of the film.
“Unexpected, insightful, tough, sad, joyful and full of love, this film is a must-see.” Jay Weissberg, Variety
“While on the outside it seems like Memory Box tells a familiar story of a ghost from the past, the film is actually so much more complex than that. It’s an introspective, affecting and visually inventive depiction of how memory, good or bad, plays a huge part in shaping us in the present.” Reyzando Navara, Film Inquiry
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