July 7, 1999

Autour de la maison rose (1999) **

Directed by Joana Hadjitomas and Khalil Joreigne. After the war, several families are expelled from a Beyrouth appartment building to make way for a shopping center. A typical example of feel-good, Third-World humanist cinema, celebrating civic virtues and other lofty themes. Quite watchable, but hardly compelling.