Join us for a Q&A with director Oualid Mouaness following both Saturday shows.

“1982” is a life-affirming coming-of-age tale set at an idyllic school in Lebanon’s mountains on the eve of a looming invasion. It unfolds over a single day and follows an 11-year-old boy’s relentless quest to profess his love to a girl in his class. As the invasion encroaches on Beirut, it upends the day, threatening the entire country and its cohesion. Within the microcosm of the school, the film draws a harrowing portrait of a society torn between its desire for love and peace and the ideological schisms unraveling its seams. In his debut feature, writer/director Oualid Mouaness delivers an ode to innocence in which he revisits one of the most cataclysmic moments in Lebanon’s history through the lens of a child and his vibrant imagination. The film demonstrates the complexities of love and war, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Told with historic precision, the film won the Cannes Film Festival’s youth sidebar prize PRIX CANNES ECRANS JUNIORS 2021 (Cannes Cinéphiles) and the Toronto International Film Festival’s NETPAC AWARD. It also holds a FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the UNICEF 2021 Prize. 1982 was Lebanon’s Official selection for the 92nd Academy Awards. It also holds the MUREX D’OR (Golden Murex) Lebanon’s top honor for Best Feature Film for the years 2019-2021.