A Perfect Day

  • Story line
    Stuck in a traffic jam, Malek catches a fleeting glance of the beautiful Zeina the woman he loves. Tapping text messages into his mobile phone he desesperately tries to get through to her, but she no longer wants to see him. She vanishes into the throng of midday Beirut traffic.

    The young man has a syndrome which interrupts his breathing during sleep. Whenever he stops moving, he dozes off adding to his disorientation. His mother Claudia has still not accepted his father’s disappearance after 15 years. She stays at home should her husband return, Malek drives around the city alone in his car.

    Each of them trying to live with a void of lost love. But today may be the “perfect day” to lay their ghosts to rest. Malek is taking his hesitant mother to declare her husband officially dead in the “absence of a body”. And that evening, in a trendy nightclub where the young of Beirut go to dance and forget their troubles, Zeina looks ready to give Malek a second shot at the love he so yearns for.

  • production

    A film by

    Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

    Produced by

    Anne-Cécile Berthomeau and Edouard Mauriat for Mille et une Productions (France)

    Co-producers

    Georges Schoucair for Abbout Productions (Lebanon)
    Thanassis Karathanos for Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany)
  • Cast and crew

    Cast

    Ziad Saad (Malek), Julia Kassar (Claudia), Alexandra Kahwagi (Zeina), Rabih Mroué, Carole Schoucair, Joseph Nader, Pascale Sekkar, Joseph Sassine
    Executive ProducerFarès Ladjimi
    Assistant ProducerMarianne Katra
    ImageJeanne Lapoirie
    EditingTina Baz Le gal
    Set design and costumesSophie Khayat
    AssistantVanessa Damouss
    SoundGuillaume Le Braz
    Sound EditingSylvain Malbrant, Nicolas Moreau
    MixingOlivier Goinard
    MusicScrambled Eggs: Charbel Haber, Marc Codsi, Tony Elieh,Said EliehSoap Kills, Zeid Hamdan & Yasmine Hamdan
    First assistant directorSophie Audier
    Second assistant directorCorinne Chawi
    ScriptZeina Saab de Melero
    Time88 minutes
    Format35 mm color -1.85.
    SoundDTS stereo
    Year2005
    Original LanguageArabic (subtitles)
    Visa n 111 312 Dépôt Légal 2005
  • Directors note
  • Screenings
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