There's a polished quality to the look and feel of Jimmy Keyrouz's debut feature - an expansion of his award-winning short Nocturne In Black and Lebanon's submission for this year's International Film Oscar - and it is also lent a docureal element by the fact it was partially shot in the genuine conflict zone of Mosul, which had only recently been liberated from Isis. Broken Keys is a tale of quiet resistance and hope for a better future in the face of conflict, which though a little broad brush in its strokes and tending towards sentimentality in places, nevertheless packages its difficult themes well for a mainstream audience.
The story centres on Karim, an accomplished pianist who is living under the repressive regime of Islamist extremists in a Syrian city, where music, among many other things, is banned. In defiance of this, he bolsters...
The story centres on Karim, an accomplished pianist who is living under the repressive regime of Islamist extremists in a Syrian city, where music, among many other things, is banned. In defiance of this, he bolsters...
- 5/1/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
An endangered musician in a Syrian town controlled by Isis must sell his beloved piano in order to escape the country in the gripping drama “Broken Keys.” It marks the feature debut of Columbia U.-trained, Lebanese writer-director Jimmy Keyrouz. Inspired by real events, the feature is an expansion of his 2016 Student Academy Award-winning short “Nocturne in Black.” Now boasting a score by Keyrouz’s famous compatriot Gabriel Yared and a Cannes 2020 label designation, the film combines real-life crisis, potent emotion and an ending of stunning defiance making it a strong entry for Lebanon in the Academy’s international feature competition.
In Sekka, twentysomething pianist Karim shares a bombed-out building with his cousin Maya (Sara Abi Kanaan), an aspiring law student, and many other neighbors of assorted ages and occupations, some of whom belong to an underground resistance opposing Isis. Since playing or listening to music is one of many...
In Sekka, twentysomething pianist Karim shares a bombed-out building with his cousin Maya (Sara Abi Kanaan), an aspiring law student, and many other neighbors of assorted ages and occupations, some of whom belong to an underground resistance opposing Isis. Since playing or listening to music is one of many...
- 1/29/2021
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
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