An American teacher, working in Beirut, befriends her neighbour, a mother and wife, who, it turns out, is trapped in a loveless marriage, to a brutish husband.
A little like Ken Loach abroad, there are issues that drive the story, and yet Are You Glad I’m Here is a hybrid picture, part domestic drama, part buddy picture, part thriller.
Directed by Noor Gharzeddine, from a screenplay by Samuel Cyrenius Anderson, it is part of the current blossoming of Lebanese cinema (films like Beirut Hotel, The Kite and Caramel, to name but a few), that are opening up international audiences to their storytelling.
They play with genre, and this film is no exception.
Most of the drama is relegated to the characters Nadine and Kirsten’s apartments, their many exchanges painting a sweet portrait of friendship beyond cultural barriers.
As friends, Kirsten and Nadine complement each other, with Nadine giving Kirsten a glimpse into a world where women don’t get the sorts of opportunities they would in other countries, while Kirsten is a beacon for Nadine, a symbol of the infinite possibilities that could lie ahead, if she is just willing to step away from her confines.
In the end, the friends are brought together, through horrible circumstance, when a moment of domestic rage leaves a body on the kitchen floor, and Nadine’s options limited.
Both actors are wonderful. Tess Harrison bringing a warmth to Kirsten that hides an inner strength, a strength that ends up being tested to the limits. Marwa Khalil, meanwhile, is magnificent as Nadine, her performance effortlessly natural, even as the plot drives her character to the brink. She plays every scene with a hint of disappointment, a wonderful juxtaposition to Harrison’s ‘can do’, American comfort zone.
Elsewhere, there is strong work from Najeeb Zeitouny, as Nadine’s husband, Pierre, the kind of man sneers were invented for. And yet, he never feels caricature, as much a product of his upbringing and culture as he is a flat out bastard.
It’s every bit a character piece, then, but that doesn’t stop the film makers from keeping the proceedings inherently cinematic.
There are wonderful pre-cursors in the visuals: a pan overheating, Kirsten playfully wielding a kitchen knife, Nadine’s copy of The Bell Jar sitting unread.
Married with some beautiful cinematography from Ziad Chahoud, which plays with a colour scheme not a million miles from an Almodovar picture (there are echoes of Volver in the plot, too), the interiors feel warm, all reds and browns, a nice counter to the drama that unfolds behind the thin walls.
The film is unafraid to dart off in new directions, and it has a fine sense of it’s own absurdity, finding wonderful moments of black comedy amongst the tragedy.
A sequence in which a character searches for the perfect tool with which to dispose of a body, (hammer to hacksaw to circular saw to chainsaw!) is right out of Pulp Fiction,
“What is he going to do, die AGAIN?”,
while the opening scene, essentially the film’s dramatic hook, plays out in a superbly unexpected way, as if a Hitchcock Maguffin has just been incinerated.
At one point, a character states; “Real satisfaction comes from purpose.”
It could be speaking for the film, as much as for its characters.
Gharzeddine’s picture is a calling card to audiences, that Lebanese cinema can be more than simply turgid, sober and serious dissections of political and cultural history. They can be entertaining too.
Are You Glad I’m Here is a film of many parts, all of which work.
Are You Glad I’m Here will be screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival in August, and recently won two awards at the Brooklyn Film Festival. For more information, visit the director’s website https://noorgharzeddine.com/
DIRECTOR:Noor Gharzeddine
STARS: Tess Harrison, Marwa Khalil
RUNTIME: 85 mins
COUNTRY: US
FilmRating: 
