The Lebanese Rocket Society review

It actually is rocket science

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The fact that Lebanon had a space programme is just one of the surprises in Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas’ fascinating dispatch from the “who knew?” fringes of docu-making.

The duo source archive materials and interviewees to explore how ’60s scientists in Beirut developed a rocket until civil war grounded the experiments.

But their ace trick is to make a story about rocket science moving. A sequence involving a statue drags, but the lament for lost dreams adds an achingly wistful note of the what-might-have-beens.

Freelance writer

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at 12DOVE.