A Sad and Beautiful World

7/22/2026

For many, life in Lebanon is a paradox – a country that simultaneously embodies the qualities of hope and despair (even though the focus tends to be more on the latter than the former). Nevertheless, both traits are present, and, in this latest feature from writer-director Cyril Aris, that seeming contradiction is brought down to a human level through this bittersweet love story. Set across three decades beginning in the 1990s, the film follows the youthful romance of childhood sweethearts Nino (Mohamad Farhat) and Yasmina (Alex Choueiry), classmates at a Beirut grade school who were born one minute apart on the same day. Their sweet, innocent attraction is truly endearing. But, when Nino and Yasmina, respectively, fall victim to the troubling conditions of their homeland and home life, th