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 seq🔯uence involving a statue drags, but the lament for lost dreams adds an achingly wist꧅ful note of the what-might-have-beens.