Set in the remote valley of Qadishi, in Northern Lebanon, Abbas Fahdel’s Yara is a limited, if verdant vision of quotidian life. Centered on an orphaned teen girl (Michelle Wehbe) — the title character — who lives with her grandmother, the film observes a tentative, tender courtship: Yara one day crosses paths with Elias (Elias Freifer), a handsome, thoroughly urban stranger. That description might suggest the makings of a classical melodrama, but Fahdel, who previously directed the 2015 documentary Homeland:…
