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Built from old-fashioned sensibilities that serve as both assets and deficits, Oualid Mouaness’ empathetic “1982” feels as though it could have been made during the titular year in which it’s set.

Mouaness’ time-honored approach is to contrast the sweetness of a first crush with the ageless shock of lost innocence. His hero is 11-year-old Wissam (Mohamad Dalli), a student at a Quaker school in the Lebanese mountains above Beirut. As the day begins, Wissam is determined to express his long-hidden feelings for classmate Joanna (Gia Madi). But he still has several obstacles to overcome, including his own shyness, the disapproval of adults around him, and the fact that Joanna’s best friend Abir (Lelya Harkous) is the class tattletale.

There’s also the fact that his imminent announcement has coincided with the start of the 1982 Israel-Lebanon War. For most of the day, the kids don’t even notice the ominous rumblings outside and overhead.

Director Oualid Mouaness’ enriching use of images and sensitivity to narrative balance outweigh his unexceptional dialogue in “1982.” Even with such a caveat, his debut feature succeeds in accessing emotional truths that leave a lingering bittersweet melancholy. Based on his schoolboy memories of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the film is set on the last day of classes in an elementary school, integrating unremarkable childhood behavior with the ever-growing apprehensions of teachers and administrators as the rumble of war planes makes it impossible to protect the kids from the worsening situation.

accruing since its Toronto Film Festival premiere. If promoted properly, pushing its bona fides as Lebanon’s Oscar entry while underlining Nadine Labaki’s presence as star, “1982” could see boutique-size international distribution.

Despite the deteriorating situation in southern Lebanon, the staff of an Anglophone school on the Beirut outskirts do their best to get the pupils through their final day of exams.

Lebanon has selected Oualid Mouaness's 1982 as its submission for consideration in the best international feature film Oscar category.

Set against the beginning of the 1982 war between Lebanon and Israel, the pic stars Nadine Labaki, director of the Oscar-nominated drama Capernaum, as Yasmine, a schoolteacher in Beirut. Wissam (Mohammad Dali), an 11-year old boy in her class, is preoccupied with finding the courage to tell his more mature classmate Joana (Gia Madi) that he has a crush on her.

"1982 does not set out to be nostalgic for this particular lifestyle or class of people at a certain historical moment,...

Lebanon has selected Oualid Mouaness's 1982 as its submission for consideration in the best international feature film Oscar category.

Set against the beginning of the 1982 war between Lebanon and Israel, the pic stars Nadine Labaki, director of the Oscar-nominated drama Capernaum, as Yasmine, a schoolteacher in Beirut. Wissam (Mohammad Dali), an 11-year old boy in her class, is preoccupied with finding the courage to tell his more mature classmate Joana (Gia Madi) that he has a crush on her.

"1982 does not set out to be nostalgic for this particular lifestyle or class of people at a certain historical moment,...

Before 2007, all Lebanese men were conscripted to serve in the military for at least one year. I’ve heard from multiple people that it wasn’t a question of citizenship, but ethnicity. If I ever visited before that year, I wouldn’t have been able to return to America without fulfilling that obligation. Whether or not this was actually true—I’m not certain. But even if it wasn’t, all the children born there during a lengthy civil war against Syrian occupation and an eventual Israeli invasion would. So it’s not enough to just watch Oualid Mouaness’ 1982 as a portrayal of futility. Beyond living through a reality that your home was under siege by two foreign parties, many of these kids would be forced to join the fight as well.

It’s crazy to think this truth manifests overnight, but that’s exactly how wars of this nature start.

Oualid Mouaness’ drama joins Sophie Deraspe’s Contemporary World Cinema entry Antigone on Tiff slate.

Anick Poirier and Lorne Price’s new sales agency WaZabi Films has announced its first acquisition, picking up the majority of worldwide rights to Lebanon-set 1982 starring Nadine Labaki ahead of its world premiere in Tiff Discovery next month.

Oualid Mouaness’ feature debut takes place against the backdrop of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and is set at a private school on the outskirts of Beirut, as 11-year-old Wissam tries to tell a classmate he loves her.

Meanwhile his teachers – on different sides of the political spectrum...