Heaven Without People (2017)

Director: Lucien Bourjeily

Stars: Farah Shaer, Jean Paul Hage, Jenny Gebara
Runtime: 91 minutes

Synopsis: Josephine, the matriarch of a sprawling family, is delighted to gather everyone for Easter lunch for the first time in two years. While they all share a joyful meal, an incident ignites underlying tensions between the family members and leads them gradually into chaos.

Performances: 7/10
Screenplay: 6/10
Editing: 7/10
Cinematography: 7/10

Verdict: "Heaven Without People" is a film I was looking forward to seeing when it originally came out a couple of years ago. However, a very limited release in theaters denied me of the joy of experiencing it on the big screen, and I had to wait for its Netflix release this week to finally get hold of it.

The movie takes place entirely during a family Easter lunch in which tension grows as more sensitive conversation pieces are brought up. And aside from a few dodgy line deliveries and a couple of decisions I felt were introduced to needlessly add more drama and conflict, I'd say that the overall Christian Lebanese middle-class ambiance was extremely well captured by director Lucien Bourjeily and a cast that I bet heavily relied on improvisation, making the dialogue float in a more natural and realistic way. The camera movement and coordination succeeded in making the audience feel like they were taking part in the narrative, which turned out to an inspired touch that certainly broke the invisible wall that separates fiction and reality. However, it's the clever handling of sensitive topics that have to do with socio-political issues in Lebanon as well as the toxic, arrogant, and aggressive way most of the population approach it that was most impressive to me. It presents citizens as not only victims but also active agents in the hardships faced by the country, ultimately showing us that as long as this mentality of prejudice and vanity lives on, nothing will ever really change.

"Heaven Without People" breaks the boundaries and taboos of Lebanese filmmaking, and I have to applaud it for that. It's definitely targetting local audiences but I'd still pretty much recommend it to everybody due to its small scale and relatable, even if not in a literal way, subjects.

FINAL GRADE: 7/10