Doha Film Institute
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War, Politics or Revolution. These are the choices of Georges, Joumana, and Perla Joe. Three destinies, and the same desire to change a sick country: Lebanon. How to keep on dreaming when all around us is falling apart?
In 2018, Joumana, a fiery feminist writer, poet and activist runs for election defying a political system that has been suffocating Lebanon for 40 years. She gets elected, only to be ousted the very next day through fraud, leaving her supporters furious. In 2019, the people's rage turns into a revolution. The streets swell with thousands of voices. Among them Perla Joe, a fearless woman who rapidly becomes a symbol of this uprising. Her unyielding voice echoes the frustration of a youth struggling to find its place. But the past looms like a shadow over their aspirations for progress and change. Georges is the guardian of that mysterious and violent past. He is a veteran of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) where he lost a leg but clung to his delusions of “glory.”

In the form of diaries, the filmmaker narrates four tumultuous years of a nation in turmoil, battling to break free from its own chains. As the country is shaken by disruptions, personal quests for meaning and survival unfold. How can we continue to dream when the world around us is collapsing?

Credits

Director
Myriam El Hajj
Screenwriter
Myriam El Hajj
Producer
Myriam Sassine

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 is set to premiere at Berlinale Panorama in 2024.' Additionally, Myriam teaches Cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. She’s a member of s
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