Randa Chahal Sabbag
1953 - 2008Most subjects in Chahal's nine narrative films and documentaries dealt with encounters between the absurdity of war stories and the gentle bitterness of solitary, thoughtful characters. Known for their satirical tone and trenchant dialogue, her films have long been considered provocative. Around 40 minutes of her 1999 film Civilisées (A Civilized People), a black comedy about the Lebanese Civil War, were censored and thus the film was only screened once.
Film critics began to recognize Chahal's work in 2003, when her feature The Kite won the Silver Lion award and several other prestigious prizes. That year, she received the National Order of the Cedar decoration in the grade of Officer from the country of Lebanon. Chahal died at age 54 in Paris, France, leaving one announced film unreleased.
Nos guerres imprudentes
Randa Chahal Sabbag
September 1994, Beirut : the systematic reconstruction of the city is beginning. The civil war, which began in 1975, has been over for two years. Randa Chahal Sabbag, a Lebanese film-maker whose family was politically and military involved in the conflict, gives a very personal view of these seventeen years of war. She uses archives, family videos and 16 mm films made between 1975 and 1994. The film features interviews with her mother in Tripoli, her sister in Paris and her brother in Beirut. She pays tribute to the memory of her father, who died during the war, and returns to the ruins of a city, the reconstruction of which marks the disappearance of a part of her life.
Our Heedless Wars
Civilisées
Randa Chahal Sabbag
Jalila Baccar, Tamim Chahal
Lebanese director Randa Chahal Sabbag spins this bleak war drama about the brutal absurdity of the urban warfare of Beirut during the 1980s. Opening with the shocking image of kittens being blown apart, the film loosely follows the travails of Bernadette (Nada Ghosn), a naïve country girl sent to the city as a maid for a mansion long since abandoned by the owners. There she meets Therese (Renee Dick), a veteran house cleaner who takes her under her wing. One day, while accompanying her friend to the cemetery, she meets a rakish Arab militiaman, and the two fall in love.
Civilisées
Les Infidèles
Randa Chahal Sabbag
Jean-Marc Barr, Thibault de Montalembert
The story takes place in an around Lebanon. It concerns Farid, a repentant Islamic fundamentalist and Charles, a French diplomat. Farid is prepared to give the French secret service a list of names of terrorists operating in France on the condition that they liberate a friend of his imprisoned in France. The deal is complicated by the fact that Farid and Charles are irresistably attracted to each other, which inflames great jealously in Charles' wife, Juliette, estranging the couple.
The Infidels
Le cerf-volant
Randa Chahal Sabbag
Flavia Bechara
A young 15 year old girl, Lamia, lives in a southern Lebanese village on the border with Israel. She is given in marriage to her cousin on the other side of the border. As Lamia crosses the barbed wire she also passes from childhood into adulthood, as brutal as our countries and the events that are to follow.
The Kite
سهى، النجاةُ من الجحيم
Randa Chahal Sabbag
Souha Bechara
The film follows Souha Béchara’s return to her village, Deir Mimas, to the Khiam jail, in the very place where she tried to assassinate General Lahd. For Souha, surviving hell is a joyful, thoughtful, and liberating travel diary. The diary of a trip that, for a moment, let one believe in the possible reconciliation of
Souha, Surviving Hell
