A Perfect Day
(Yawm Akhar)
Directed by Joana Hadjithomas & Kahil Joreige
France, Lebanon & Germany, 2005
Cornerhouse, 2 June 2011
This film is noteworthy for its tone of dislocation and alienation.
Although Malek, as an architect, is playing his part in rebuilding Beirut, the events of the civil war cast a dark shadow over his life still. Malek’s father had disappeared during the war and the day has now come to declare him legally dead.
And the kidnappings that occurred during the war are a pressure point in Lebanese society even today: Bahij Hojeij’s Here Comes the Rain (2010), declared the best Arab film at the recent Abu-Dhabi Festival, touches on the same theme. There the story is about a man, kidnapped and held captive during the war, who finds a way back to his former life.
Featuring powerful central performances by Ziad Saad as Malek and by Julia Kassar as his mother, A Perfect Day is a fine film of interrupted beginnings, telling moments and unwanted revelations.
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Jildy Sauce 