"Shadows of Beirut is about family trauma and how the wounds of the past shape what comes after."Sean Dooley visits Shadows of Beirut."At its heart, Shadows of Beirut is about family trauma and how the wounds of the past shape what comes after. Tina Gharavi's latest feature sends protagonist Lana (Tala Calil) back to the city – and the father – she left behind twenty-five years ago. This drama asks what happens when the damage inflicted by a parent is carried into the next generation, shaping Lana’s present relationship with her fiancé Ben (Michael E. Rodgers) and the lives of the family her father left behind in Beirut.Ben is there from the start, and Gharavi lets the tension between him and Lana build quietly: Lana has told him she's come to Beirut for a dying uncle, not the father she's spent years pretending doesn't exist, and that small deception festers under the surface of their relationship until it finally erupts into a full-blown fight. It's a smart way of showing how her avoidance of the past bleeds into her present relationship before we even get to the bigger reveals. Then there's the curious thread of Lana understanding the language but refusing to speak it, an intriguing detail that sits neatly alongside that avoidance.As for the backdrop, this is handled with a light touch. Beirut is still living with the legacy of the devastating Port explosion, while a pandemic that hasn't quite gone away means masks are still part of everyday life. These never swamp the personal narrative, yet they're present enough to give it weight. The city Lana returns to is one that has had to carry its own past forward, and the film lets that sit quietly alongside her own story without ever spelling out the parallel.It's a promising set-up, carried by an interesting central tension..."Read the full review here:www.filmireland.net/review-shadows-of-beirut/
