Sunday, March 16 / 5:00 pm / ByTOwne Cinema

Program: Short Film (TBA), Arzé, Q&A with Mira Shaib
Guest: Mira Shaib, director of Arzé

Feature presentation \

Arzé is a compelling, tense and, at times, humorous family drama reminiscent of Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. Arzé (Diamand Abou Abboud), a struggling single mother living with her 19-year-old son, Kinan (Bilal Al Hamwi) and agoraphobic sister, Layla (Betty Taoutel) in Beirut, Lebanon, sells homemade pies to support her family. Arzé steals her sister’s treasured bracelet to make a down payment on a scooter for Kinan to deliver her pies to a larger clientele. When the scooter is stolen, Arzé must scour Beirut to retrieve her source of livelihood. Director Mira Shaib sends Arzé and her reluctant son on a multi-cultural journey to find their stolen scooter. Quickly, the pair become embroiled in the city’s volatile complex sectarianism. As tensions rise and family secrets are revealed, the scooter’s recovery is at stake and so is the family’s unity. Abboud is inspiring as she carries the film with a quiet indomitable strength. Her character Arzé is a symbol of a working-class woman with unbreakable resolve and optimism.

- Patrick Murray

Short film \

To be announced

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2024 / - minutes / -
Director: -
Language: -

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