Restored

UK Premiere of 4K Restoration: The Razor’s Edge

+ pre-recorded intro by Mathilde Rouxel, co-founder of the Association Jocelyne Saab

Ghazl el-banat

A unique example of activist experimental cinema on the survival of people during a time of occupation, thanks to the power of art.

  • Director

    Jocelyne Saab

  • With

    Jacques Weber, Hala Bassam, Juliet Berto, Ali Diab

  • Lebanon-France 1985. 102min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • English subtitles

During Israel’s siege of Beirut, a bond blooms between a teenage refugee from Southern Lebanon and a middle-aged artist. The first narrative feature by Arab cinema’s pioneer Jocelyne Saab, a militant filmmaker who started her career as a journalist, was shot in war-torn Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. It incorporates documentary footage of the siege while experimenting with form: at times surreal, and scarily current, this restoration presents the original version screened at Cannes in 1985.

Contains scenes of graphic violence or injury.

Restored in 4K in 2025 by Association Jocelyne Saab in collaboration with Cinémathèque suisse and La Cinémathèque québécoise.

Association Jocelyne Saab