Diaries From Lebanon

by Myriam El Hajj
About the Film

Filmed during the maelstrom of Lebanon’s early 2020s, Myriam El Hajj’s DIARIES FROM LEBANON uses a diaristic structure to tell the story of a country plagued by legislative tyrants, state censorship, and a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut. El Hajj’s deeply personal film renders the tireless attempts of the Lebanese people to restructure their country against seemingly insurmountable strife. Incorporating the perspectives of an amputee veteran of the Lebanese Civil War, a feminist journalist undemocratically usurped from her parliamentary position in 2018, and a young artist-activist, DIARIES ruminates on the nation’s past, present, and future. El Hajj’s own disembodied voice compellingly narrates landscapes sheathed in fog, late-night city traffic, and graffitied streets, articulating intimate confessions of unrealized dreams, forlorn disenchantments, seething rages, and unwavering hopes.

The film ends in 2023, yet dreams of radical change in Lebanon are even more pertinent in light of the current onslaught of Israeli invasions, airstrikes, and assassinations that have (as of October 2024) displaced a fifth of the Lebanese population (1.2 million people). As Israel’s far-reaching genocidal regime targets Hezbollah fighters and Lebanese civilians alike, DIARIES FROM LEBANON becomes an even more pressing work, hoping for a country unshackled from the violence and repression of both sectarian and imperialist powers.

2024  ·  1h50m  ·  France, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
Arabic
English, French subs
Festivals and Awards
2024
Champs-Élysées Film Festival, Longs métrages français
2024
Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama Section
2024
Special Mention for Quality of Subject Treatment , Special Mention for Quality of Subject Treatment
2024
Signs Award , International Festival Signs of The Night in Bangkok
2024
Visions du Réel International Film Festival
2024
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
2024
Geneva International Oriental Film Festival
2024
Arts of Lebanon Festival
2024
Shanghai International Film Festival
2024
Toruń International Film Festival
2024
Sarajevo Film Festival
Screenings
October 28, 2024
Cinema Politica Concordia (Montreal, QC)
Credits

“Diaries from Lebanon is a precise and moving documentary, which, by looking at tectonic social events through people’s daily lives …resonates deeply.”

“Our only tool to stop history forgetting what we lived through is to tell the story.”

About the Director

Myriam El Hajj

Myriam El Hajj is a Lebanese filmmaker whose first feature documentary A TIME TO REST premiered at Visions du Réel-Nyon in 2015 and screened at several international festivals, winning multiple awards.
Her second feature documentary DIARIES FROM LEBANON world premiered at the Berlinale’s Panorama section.
Additionally, Myriam teaches Cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. She’s a member of several film commissions, including the CNC and she’s a founding member of Rawiyat-Sisters in Film — a collective of women filmmakers from the Arab world and the diaspora.

 
Other films by Myriam El Hajj

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