MOVIES

THE STICKY SIDE OF BAKLAVA

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2020

CASTING: Claudia Ferri, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Raïa Haïdar, Geneviève Brouillette, Manuel Tadros, France Castel, Angèle Coutu, Marcel Sabourin, Anick Lemay, Nathalie Cavezzali, Joseph Antaki, Natalie Tannous

Even though you change your country, habits and compatriots to leave behind your culture and your roots, don’t they cling to you forever like a sticky baklava?


The clash of cultures as told through the story of Houwayda, who has embraced a western lifestyle, and her sister Joëlle, who even as an immigrant has remained profoundly Lebanese. The Sticky Side of Baklava is a tender comedy of manners, brimming with laughs, imbroglios and paradoxes, and inhabited by a cast of Québeckers and Lebanese who are as annoying as they are endearing. Like Pierre, Houwayda’s bobo husband, who secretly hopes that his wife will not try to liberate herself further from the traditional values she believes she has left behind. A biting and affectionate portrait of Montréal’s Lebanese community, and of Québec.

 

With its humorous treatment of the culture clash of immigration, The Sticky Side of Baklava is a heartwarming film that seeks to bring people together by embracing our differences.

See the trailer

THE OTHER SIDE OF NOVEMBER

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2016

CASTING: Arsinée Khanjian, Pascale Bussières, Marc Labrèche, Raïa Haïdar, Béatrice Moukhaiber, Wafa’ Tarabay, Nada Abou Farhat, Walid Al Alaïli, Gretta Aoun, Raymonde Saadé Azar, Gisèle Boueiz, Andrée Naccouzi, Edouard El Hashem, Bshara Attallah, Mike Ayvazian, Majdi Machmouchi

Who would you be today if, a few years ago, you had not chosen the path you took? Another person, in another life. Completely, definitely, irrevocably.


Lea is a renowned neurosurgeon in her fifties, living in Quebec. Layla is a dressmaker of repute in her fifties, living in a remote village in Lebanon.

 

One day, both start to have memory failures. Each one in her own way goes back in time to a certain night in November. What happened that night? What are they to each other? And who is that woman who resurfaces from the past and whom both women seem to have known?

See the trailer

THE VALLEY OF TEARS

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2012

CASTING: Nathalie Coupal, Joseph Antaki, Nathalie Mallette, Janine Sutto, Sophie Cadieux, Henri Chassé, Wafa Tarabey, Layla Hakim, Walid El Alayli, Ziad Karam

Marie, a Montreal publisher specializing in memoirs by war survivors, receives an anonymous document, the condensed story of Ali, a young Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Intrigued, Marie begins a search for the author’s identity. She enlists the help of Joseph, a Lebanese man who is painting her office. A strange relationship develops between the pair, who are from very different backgrounds. Then Joseph suddenly disappears. Torn apart by her difficult mission, Marie starts a journey into the past. In a small Lebanese village, in the heart of a bloodstained culture whose unspoken issues are infinitely enigmatic, Marie will eventually find the key to every mystery.

See the trailer Go to website

FROM MY WINDOW, WITHOUT A HOME...

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2006

CASTING: Louise Portal, Renée Thomas, Leyla Hakim, Walid El Alayli, Hélène Mercier, Jean-François Blanchard, Mariloup Wolfe, Catherine Colvey, Sébastien Ricard

Because she suffocates under rigid traditions and social constraints, Sana decides to leave her daughter and her country, Lebanon. She immigrates to Canada where she wants to forget her roots and her past. Yet, 15 years later, when her daughter finds her, this reunion releases repressed feelings: guilt, suffering, bitterness and an unexpected nostalgia.


Beyond the mother-daughter relationship, this story offers a reflection on the sole and exclusive role assigned to a woman within the Middle-Eastern society, the one of a mother.

See the trailer

THE STICKY SIDE OF BAKLAVA

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2020

CASTING: Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Geneviève Brouillette, Raïa Haïdar, Claudia Ferri, Manuel Tadros, France Castel, Angèle Coutu, Marcel Sabourin, Anick Lemay, Nathalie Cavezzali, Joseph Antaki, Natalie Tannous

Even though you change your country, habits and compatriots to leave behind your culture and your roots, don’t they cling to you forever like a sticky baklava?


The clash of cultures as told through the story of Houwayda, who has embraced a western lifestyle, and her sister Joëlle, who even as an immigrant has remained profoundly Lebanese. The Sticky Side of Baklava is a tender comedy of manners, brimming with laughs, imbroglios and paradoxes, and inhabited by a cast of Québeckers and Lebanese who are as annoying as they are endearing. Like Pierre, Houwayda’s bobo husband, who secretly hopes that his wife will not try to liberate herself further from the traditional values she believes she has left behind. A biting and affectionate portrait of Montréal’s Lebanese community, and of Québec.

 

With its humorous treatment of the culture clash of immigration, The Sticky Side of Baklava is a heartwarming film that seeks to bring people together by embracing our differences.

See the trailer

THE OTHER SIDE OF NOVEMBER

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2016

CASTING: Arsinée Khanjian, Pascale Bussières, Marc Labrèche, Raïa Haïdar, Béatrice Moukhaiber, Wafa’ Tarabay, Nada Abou Farhat, Walid Al Alaïli, Gretta Aoun, Raymonde Saadé Azar, Gisèle Boueiz, Andrée Naccouzi, Edouard El Hashem, Bshara Attallah, Mike Ayvazian, Majdi Machmouchi

Who would you be today if, a few years ago, you had not chosen the path you took? Another person, in another life. Completely, definitely, irrevocably.


Lea is a renowned neurosurgeon in her fifties, living in Quebec. Layla is a dressmaker of repute in her fifties, living in a remote village in Lebanon.

 

One day, both start to have memory failures. Each one in her own way goes back in time to a certain night in November. What happened that night? What are they to each other? And who is that woman who resurfaces from the past and whom both women seem to have known?

See the trailer

THE VALLEY OF TEARS

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2012

CASTING: Nathalie Coupal, Joseph Antaki, Nathalie Mallette, Janine Sutto, Sophie Cadieux, Henri Chassé, Wafa Tarabey, Layla Hakim, Walid El Alayli, Ziad Karam

Marie, a Montreal publisher specializing in memoirs by war survivors, receives an anonymous document, the condensed story of Ali, a young Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Intrigued, Marie begins a search for the author’s identity. She enlists the help of Joseph, a Lebanese man who is painting her office. A strange relationship develops between the pair, who are from very different backgrounds. Then Joseph suddenly disappears. Torn apart by her difficult mission, Marie starts a journey into the past. In a small Lebanese village, in the heart of a bloodstained culture whose unspoken issues are infinitely enigmatic, Marie will eventually find the key to every mystery.

See the trailer Go to website

FROM MY WINDOW, WITHOUT A HOME...

Produced, directed and written by Maryanne Zéhil

2006

CASTING: Louise Portal, Renée Thomas, Leyla Hakim, Walid El Alayli, Hélène Mercier, Jean-François Blanchard, Mariloup Wolfe, Catherine Colvey, Sébastien Ricard

Because she suffocates under rigid traditions and social constraints, Sana decides to leave her daughter and her country, Lebanon. She immigrates to Canada where she wants to forget her roots and her past. Yet, 15 years later, when her daughter finds her, this reunion releases repressed feelings: guilt, suffering, bitterness and an unexpected nostalgia.


Beyond the mother-daughter relationship, this story offers a reflection on the sole and exclusive role assigned to a woman within the Middle-Eastern society, the one of a mother.

See the trailer
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