A unique and surrealistic testimony to Lebanon, this documentary portrait of Beirut’s upper classes questions the complex reality of the capital city. Taking a look at the history of Lebanon through the lives of four prominent families from its Christian elite. The protagonists represent a golden age of stability and wealth a time when Lebanon was known as “the Switzerland of the East” and its capital, Beirut, “the Paris of the Middle East.”
Behind the closed doors of Beirut’s most exclusive neighborhoods, a lifestyle of elegance endures. Against the backdrop of daily insecurities and social division, intoxicating scenes of opulent celebration are the hangovers of a bygone era. Out of step with the realities of their wider communities, the ostentatious lifestyle of the Christian elite denies a precarious social reality. Though the wider world is changing, the film reveals a community that, inured to suffering, exists in bittersweet and tenuous seclusion. Director Eric Motjer brings this intriguing atmosphere to life with a soundtrack straight out of the electronic playbook of legendary Italian director Paolo Sorrentino.