THE STORY – Beirut, Lebanon. Suzanne gets to know Osmane after saving him from a racist attack. Osmane is Sudanese, young, undocumented and searching for a better future. Suzanne is a middle-class widow with Palestinian roots, a mother of two adult children and well over twice his age. Unexpectedly, the two lonely souls open up to each other and connect. Shy at first, they grow closer, until they admit they are in love. As a fractured Lebanon teeters on the brink of collapse, their relationship provokes a wave of anger and indignation all around them. Suzanne’s children stop seeing her. Colleagues turn their backs on her. Priests refuse to marry them. Their neighbours call the police on them. The same people who threw the country into civil war now stand there, judging, forcing Suzanne and Osmane to face the hostility, and to resist.
THE CAST – Hiam Abbass, Amine Benrachid, Shaden Fakih, Charbel Kamel & Alexandre Paulikevitch
THE TEAM – Danielle Arbid (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
Hiam Abbass (“Succession“) stars in this Beirut-set May-December romance, premiering as the opening film in the Panorama strand at the 76th Berlin Film Festival. Written and directed by Lebanese-French filmmaker Danielle Arbid (“Simple Passion”), it is an involving drama that plays like a low-key homage to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Fear Eats The Soul,” which won the Palme d’Or in 1974. Abbass plays Suzanne, a 63-year-old widow living in a spacious apartment in present-day Lebanon. In the opening scene, she saves a 27-year-old Sudanese man named Ousmane (Amine Benrachid) from a racist attack and brings him home to tend to his wounds. The tenderness and chemistry between them are immediately apparent, and they soon fall in love and begin a relationship. However, their romance is met with fierce opposition from multiple fronts, including Suzanne’s gossipy work colleagues (Cynthia El Khazen and Paula Sehnaoui), her grown daughter (Shaden Fakih), and an angry neighbor so incensed by the relationship that she calls the police and attempts to have Suzanne evicted.
Arbid’s script takes an uncomfortable look at casual racism in modern-day Beirut, and by extension elsewhere, aimed not only at undocumented Sudanese workers like Ousmane but also at Palestinian immigrants. Hypocrisy runs deep throughout the film. One of the most striking moments occurs when Suzanne asks a priest to officiate her wedding. He listens attentively and even kindly to her plea, only to laugh and walk away. Ousmane initially introduces Suzanne to what seems like a rare pocket of tolerance in a local cafe run by Akram (George Sawaya) and frequented by Layal (Alexandre Paulikevitch), who offers thoughtful advice. Yet even this apparent sanctuary cannot escape the pervasive prejudice that defines the surrounding community.
The screenplay also plays with the audience’s sympathies in interesting ways. Suzanne’s colleagues are first presented as likable comic figures who pride themselves on blunt honesty. When they reveal themselves to be just as intolerant as everyone else, the disappointment cuts deeper. The confrontation scenes, in which Suzanne faces down nosy neighbors and vicious gossip, are especially satisfying, and it is hard not to admire her unapologetic resolve quietly. At the same time, the film keeps viewers uncertain about how fully they should support the relationship, creating a productive tension. Abbass, who carries herself with the elegance of Catherine Deneuve, is superb in the lead role. She makes Suzanne warm, generous, and open-minded, while also suggesting a potential selfish streak that raises the possibility she may be risking her social standing to fulfill her own desires.
The film’s most significant weakness lies in the characterization of Ousmane. He feels underwritten, and we learn very little about him beyond his immigration status and the confiscated passport taken by the employers who assaulted him. His motivations remain ambiguous. It is never entirely clear whether his affection for Suzanne is sincere or driven by necessity and comfort. This uncertainty might have been compelling, but the character undergoes an abrupt shift late in the film. Previously gentle, polite, and portrayed as a strict non-drinker, he suddenly behaves in ways that feel narratively convenient rather than organically developed.
One of the film’s more unexpected stylistic choices is Arbid’s use of back projection for exterior scenes in Beirut, a technique adopted out of necessity due to bombardments during production. The result gives the film a slightly theatrical quality that subtly heightens its sense of artifice. That theatricality is reinforced during the closing credits, which feature an interpretive dance performed by Paulikevitch’s character, fully aware of the camera. It is an unusual choice, yet it creates a deliberate narrative distance that may soften the story’s impact for local audiences. Cinematographer Céline Bozon, who also shot “Dao” at the 2026 Berlinale, crafts intimate spaces, particularly within the cafe scenes, while Bachar Mar-Khalif’s score and the dance sequences between the two leads add warmth and charm. Editor Clément Pinteaux (“All We Imagine As Light“) gives the film a distinctive rhythm, subtly quickening the pace as gossip and pressure mount. In the end, this is an engaging portrait of a provocative May-December romance, though it ultimately falters when the script loses focus in its second half.
