Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in June ahead of it’s North American premiere at the TribecaFestival. Film Independent Presents a theatrical screening of Arzé (Lebanon’s Official Submission to the Academy Awards) which will be followed an in-person conversation with director Mira Shaib on Friday, November 8th.

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A film touching on serious subjects with lightness and humor, Arzé is a unique concoction. Ostensibly about the many different sectarian communities that make up Beirut, it becomes a heartfelt story about the family dynamic between two middle-aged sisters finding company and solace in each other as they raise a young man–son to one, beloved nephew to the other. All of this is wrapped in a timely contemporary comedy springing from a single incident: the theft of a scooter the family relies on to deliver pies they make and sell.

As director Mira Shaib puts it, “We wanted...