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A Perfect Day
Taking place over one day, this luminous and soft-spoken film follows a middle-aged mother and her son as each deals with laying a husband and a father to rest. As gentle as a caress, the film is an existential call for mourning, the most essential step in moving past the legacy of the war.
Ironically titled A Perfect Day, directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige chronicle the fateful day that a mother (Julia Kassar as Claudia) and her adult son Malek (Ziad Saad) legally declare the family patriarch dead. Kidnapped 15 years ago during a 1988 Lebanese civil war, the man could have been declared dead after four years, but Claudia has clung to the hope that her husband would return. But if you expect the film to mark a real turning point, you will come away disappointed, as the plot plays out like Persephone supervising Sisyphus.
While the narrative spins in a circle, what you can savor are the details—character insights, visually stunning moments, a portrait of modern Beirut—and the natural way that the filmmakers allow the narrative to unfold. Opening with a close-up of Malek's hair, Claudia attempts to wake her son for his construction work and has mixed emotions about an appointment that afternoon. Malek seems strangely stoic during the encounter in the lawyer's office, perhaps bored by his mother's past obsession with her missing husband, but we soon after learn that he suffers from sleep apnea (similar to River Phoenix character's affliction in My Own Private Idaho).
A quiet and uneventful film that won't be most people's cup of tea, the Lebanese film weaves a comfortable cinematic quilt that covers everyday life in Beirut while giving us a glimpse into some intriguing characters. But the visual details provide the surprises that make this worthwhile for cineastes.
ArteEast/red.
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