Memory Box

Play trailer

Memory Box

2021,

1h 42m,

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

93%

29 Reviews

Tomatometer

- -

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

29 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

On Christmas Eve in Montreal, Alex and her mother Maia receive a package in the mail. Inside are the countless notebooks, cassettes and photographs that Maia, between the ages of 13 and 18, sent from Beirut to her best friend who had left for Paris to escape the war. Maia refuses to open this Pandora’s box. Alex, on the other hand, is irresistibly attracted to these testimonies of an unknown past and discovers, between fantasy and reality, her mother’s tumultuous adolescence, her first love and the murderous war that rages, bringing to the surface well-kept secrets. With these revelations, Alex will convince her mother to return to Lebanon, after 25 years of exile, to face the ghosts of her past.

Critics Consensus

Vibrantly filmed and finely detailed, Memory Box is an engaging depiction of one woman's reckoning with her past.

Read Critics Reviews

Jude Dry

IndieWire

Aug 8, 2022

B

Artists do not need science to tell them what they feel in their bones, and film is a powerful tool to illustrate the ephemeral memories one stores in the body.

Go to Full Review

Devika Girish

New York Times

Aug 4, 2022

Memories, whether human or technological, have their limits. But in sharing them, as “Memory Box” movingly demonstrates, we can discover them anew.

Go to Full Review

Simran Hans

Observer (UK)

Jan 23, 2022

4/5

Teenage girls are taken seriously in Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige's lively coming-of-age drama.

Go to Full Review

Erick Estrada

Cinegarage

Sep 15, 2022

Embraces with subtlety themes such as inclusion, tolerance and acceptance. [Full review in Spanish]

Go to Full Review

Jared Mobarak

Jaredmobarak.com

Aug 5, 2022

7/10

Credit the filmmakers for going to those darker places with the impossibility of living through so much death and destruction. And for deciding that letting that pain out and realizing they don't have to battle it alone can lead to happy endings too.

Go to Full Review

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Hammer to Nail

Aug 5, 2022

The result is a moving cinematic treatise on identity and its reconstruction, buoyed by fine performances all around, proving that out of pain can come a salve to heal it.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

Joana Hadjithomas

Director

Khalil Joreige

Director

Rim Turkhi

Maia (adult)

Manal Issa

Maia (young)

Paloma Vauthier

Alex

Jade Charbonneau

Actor

Riceboy Sleeps

94%

86%

Riceboy Sleeps

Watchlist

So Much Tenderness

83%

So Much Tenderness

Watchlist

The Greenhouse

86%

The Greenhouse

Watchlist

A Chiara

91%

58%

A Chiara

Watchlist

TRAILER

for A Chiara

Wet Sand

100%

Wet Sand

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

On Christmas Eve in Montreal, Alex and her mother Maia receive a package in the mail. Inside are the countless notebooks, cassettes and photographs that Maia, between the ages of 13 and 18, sent from Beirut to her best friend who had left for Paris to escape the war. Maia refuses to open this Pandora’s box. Alex, on the other hand, is irresistibly attracted to these testimonies of an unknown past and discovers, between fantasy and reality, her mother’s tumultuous adolescence, her first love and the murderous war that rages, bringing to the surface well-kept secrets. With these revelations, Alex will convince her mother to return to Lebanon, after 25 years of exile, to face the ghosts of her past.

Director: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
Producer: Christian Eid, Barbara Letellier, Georges Schoucair, Carole Scotta, Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
Screenwriter: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Gaëlle Macé
Production Co: Centre National du Cinéma et de L'image Animée, Téléfilm Canada, Abbout Productions, micro_scope, Haut et Court, Ginger Beirut Production, Super Ecran, Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC), TV5 MONDE
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Dolby
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Join The Newsletter

Join The Newsletter

Cookie Settings