Expat Cinema Rotterdam

► ABOUT THE FILM
A Sad and Beautiful World is a romantic drama about two lovers facing a life-changing decision: should they stay in politically unstable Lebanon and build a family there, or leave their homeland behind for an uncertain future elsewhere?

Set against the backdrop of a turbulent Lebanon, Nino and Yasmina have shared a deep but increasingly strained love for three decades.
As the country oscillates between hope and devastation, Nino clings to the past while Yasmina searches for a way toward a new future. War, separation, and personal turning points put both their relationship and their plans for the future to the test, including the question of whether they want to have a child. Torn between love and survival, they must decide: stay or leave everything behind. In the midst of this uncertainty, humor, resilience, and love become their only anchors.

A Sad and Beautiful World observes with quiet sensitivity how intimate relationships are shaped by larger historical forces. The result is a melancholic yet tender portrait of a love struggling to endure in an unpredictable world.

► ABOUT THE FILM
On the pavement outside a 7-Eleven wanders Gohan, a young white dog with a distinctive pink nose. When a retired Japanese man takes him in and gives him a home for the very first time, an extraordinary journey begins—one that spans nearly a decade and connects the lives of people from different generations.

As the world around him changes, Gohan crosses paths with individuals who are each, in their own way, grappling with loss, uncertainty, love, and the search for where they belong. From an elderly man forced to let go of a familiar life, to a young woman trying to escape her circumstances, and a student discovering the true meaning of unconditional love.

Three generations, three intertwined stories, and one dog whose quiet presence touches lives and changes them forever. Blending warmth, humor, and emotional depth, Gohan is a heartwarming tale about friendship, belonging, and the meaning of home in an ever-changing world.

► ABOUT THE FILM
Director Ousmane Sembène is often regarded as the father of African cinema, and with Black Girl he created one of its foundational works.

Through the story of Diouana, a young Senegalese woman who enters the service of a French couple, Sembène crafts a precise and devastating portrait of exploitation disguised as benevolence. His restrained visual style and elliptical narrative transform everyday gestures into acts of indictment, revealing how identity can be erased within the most domestic of spaces.

Sixty years later, the film’s moral force remains as urgent as ever. Sembène demonstrates how colonial power structures do not simply disappear with independence, but continue to shape language, labor, ownership, and the intimate dynamics of everyday life. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, Black Girlreturns to cinemas in a new 4K restoration.