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Memory Box

Play trailer Poster for Memory Box 2021 1h 42m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer 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.
Memory Box

What to Know

Critics Consensus

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

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Critics Reviews

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Jude Dry IndieWire 08/08/2022
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 08/04/2022
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) 01/23/2022
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 09/15/2022
Embraces with subtlety themes such as inclusion, tolerance and acceptance. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Jared Mobarak Jaredmobarak.com 08/05/2022
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 08/05/2022
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
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Audience Reviews

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08/08/2022 A refreshing new way of storytelling based on personal archives, this film is an absolute MUST SEE. The storyline, the shots, the creative and artistic twist to this film makes it one to remember! See more Read all reviews
Memory Box

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Movie Info

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)