The Razor’s Edge at Walker Art Center

102 minutes

SCREENS AT THE WALKER ART CENTER

ABOUT The Razor’s Edge (Ghazl el-Banat)

Presented in a new 4K restoration, Jocelyne Saab’s narrative feature, set amid the Lebanese Civil War, tells the story of a passionate teenager who forms a (mostly) platonic bond with an older abstract painter.

As a filmmaker known primarily for her documentary work, Jocelyne Saab’s The Razor’s Edge is one of her few narrative features. The film tells the story of platonic love between a young refugee from southern Lebanon and a painter depressed by the ongoing Lebanese Civil War. Through its story and characters, the film traverses spaces that have now disappeared, taking viewers into corners of Beirut not often shown in films made during the conflict. Presented in a new 4K restoration, The Razor’s Edge merges narrative structure with astute documentary precision to display the social impacts of violence on Lebanon during the war.

DCP courtesy of the Association Jocelyne Saab. Promotional support provided by Mizna. 

FILMMAKER BIO

Jocelyne Saab (1948–2019) was born in Beirut, and she began her filmmaking career as a war reporter for French television. She is known for her documentary films, capturing intricate images of everyday life and the impacts of war. Her documentaries record both violence and resistance in countries like Egypt, Palestine, Iran, and Vietnam. When she returned to Beirut to cover the Lebanese Civil War, she produced fifteen films, including her three most famous, known as the “the Beirut Trilogy”: Beirut, Never Again (1976); Letter from Beirut (1978); and Beirut, My City (1982). Her narrative films draw from her documentary style, blending fact and fiction, and giving voice to those that were so often silenced by mainstream media.

Presented by Archives on Screen

Archives on Screen (AoS) brings rare, unseen archival films from around the globe to Minnesota. Co-founded in 2022 by Michelle Baroody and Maggie Hennefeld, AoS has worked with international film archives and local film venues to expose students, diverse audiences, and underserved populations to the richness of cinema history. We screen everything from silent films to contemporary features, focusing primarily on counter-cinemas, such as feminist and queer films, world cinema, and anti-colonial productions. Our events facilitate public education, community engagement, and open conversation about how the archives of film history can help us to imagine different worlds and alternative futures. Archives on Screen’s flagship program, Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour, is a curated selection of films from Il Cinema Ritrovato, an annual international film festival that exhibits new restorations and rediscovered films in Bologna, Italy every summer. We also host a quarterly screening series at the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis and regular screenings at the Heights Theater and other local venues. Learn more about Archives on Screen at archivesonscreen.org

Relased 1985

Directed by Jocelyne Saab