thaisg01

I never expect too much from directorial debuts, but Oualid Mouaness truly blew me away with his 2019 film 1982. The film follows the course of a day as a young man named Wissam struggles with revealing his feelings to a girl in his fifth-grade class. Simultaneously, the adults in the school grow wary of the war waging outside of the school walls during the Israel invasion of Beirut. Mouaness leans toward a more minimalist style of filmmaking by reducing dialogue and allowing the actors' expressions to do the talking, which was easy given the talented actors in the film. Mohammad Dalli, the actor who portrays Wissam, captures audiences with his deep yet innocent expressions. Another talent that shined was Nadine Labaki, who plays Wissam`s school teacher. Labaki`s performance stood out to me because throughout the movie you can see the fear in her eyes grow but she must always stay composed so as not to scare the children. This film puts audiences in both the role of the innocent child who has no idea what is going on and the experienced adult who is aware of the severity of their situation. I was hooked from start to finish!