£5 Book Tickets
FilmWatch on Eventive
Arabic and French with Subtitles
An award winning feature documentary explores the complexity of love, life, intimacy and loss from a balcony in Beirut. Director Cyril Aris provides the intimate portrayal of a family at a moment of crisis. On the eve of his 90th birthday, life hangs by a thread for Antoine as he anticipates the visit of his daughter gone on a journey to South America, while his wife for 65 years, Viviane, also suffering from the aches of old age, endures an excruciating double sentencing: dealing with her daughter’s tragic death, and, concealing this unbearable truth from her husband – truth that would inevitably end the last beats of his fragile heart.
“An assured, emotionally rich film about the lies a family tells to keep their patriarch happy; and the unattended costs of their falsehood. After sixty years of marriage, Antoine and Vivi have lost their most beloved daughter; but no one has dared to tell the bedridden nonagenarian Antoine, lest his heart crack. A simple solution, though everyone else in this densely interconnected family has then to live the same lie, giving no expression to their grief. A deeply affecting, beautifully shot cinematic novella; like all the best stories The Swing is a simple tale, but one that never short-changes its viewers.” – From OPEN CITY DOC
“A heavy, lyrical portrait brightened by the warming rays of loved ones’ smiles.” -From KVIFF
Awards:
* El-Gouna Bronze Star Award at the 2nd El Gouna Film Festival, Egypt 2018
* Honorable Mention at the 8th Open City Documentary Festival in London for “its impeccable judged framing and profoundly touching meditation on mortality and morality”, UK 2018
* Jury Prize at the 24th Medfilm Festival in Rome, Italy 2018: “Director Cyril Aris delivers a painful and heartbreaking movie filming the silences, the unsaid and the grandparents’ love, while reflecting on aging and death. The human condition is examined in a sweet way within a few rooms, and from a balcony overlooking Beirut.”
* Jury Prize at the 2nd Manarat Film Festival, Tunisia – “It is a film about the last days of a couple, a story about death and love, about old age and memory. It triggers strong emotions and destabilizes with its ambiguity. It challenges us with questions of divergent answers. Eventually, we congratulate this film for the beautiful love story it depicts”
* Special Mention at the 5th Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary 2019
* Recipient of the AFAC Documentary Grant
“فيلم مشغول بحب، يجعل مشاهده يتأمل في الوجود ويطرح على نفسه الأسئلة حول الحياة والموت
وماذا يتبقى لنا في النهاية حين يخوننا جسدنا وقدراتنا الذهنية؟
ولعل السؤال هو المحور الأساسي الذي يستمد الفيلم منه قوته، كونه يجعل المشاهد يرتبط ارتباطاً لصيقاً ببطلي «المرجوحة». فهما، قبل أي شيء آخر، بطلان من لحم ودم يمكن أن نصادفهما يومياً في حياتنا”
– فيكي حبيب
From AL HAYAT
المخرج سيريل عريس يمنحنا هنا واحدًا من أفضل الأفلام العائلية على الأطلاق، مسائلة للعمر والذاكرة وألاعيب القدر عبر حكاية الجد والجدة
[…]
بهدوء ودأب وحميمية ملفتة نصير ضمن أفراد العائلة، نعايش معهم مأساة أكثر ما يثير الفزع فيها أنها اعتيادية، تحدث في كل يوم وكل بيت، مأساة حياتية وليست سينمائية
– أحمد شوقي
From FILFAN
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