Through the stories of Assaad Shaftari, a former high ranking intelligence officer in a Christian right wing militia, responsible for many casualties in the protracted civil war in Lebanon and Maryam Saiidi, the mother of Maher, a missing young communist fighter who disappeared in 1982, the film digs in the war wounds and asks if redemption and forgiveness are possible.
Sleepless Nights a film by Eliane Rehab
HD | 128 min | 2012 | Lebanon
“Eliane Raheb’s debut Sleepless Nights, an out-of-nowhere knockout that brilliantly combines moral tenacity, indefatigable reportage, ingenious interpersonal manipulations, and cop-to-the-construct formal reflexivity in pursuit of some measure of resolution in post-civil war Lebanon.” -Eric Hynes, Cinema Scope
“It’s hard to find a Lebanese documentary that doesn’t touch on the country’s bloody civil war, yet it’ll be even harder to find one better than “Sleepless Nights.” Helmer Eliane Raheb’s emotionally trenchant pic slices through fuzzy notions of forgiveness and reconciliation, exposing the concept of clemency without justice as a mask that protects the perpetrators and leaves survivors with festering wounds.” -Jay Weissberg, Variety
Eliane Raheb was born in Lebanon and is the director of 2 short films: The last screening and Meeting, and of the documentaries : Karib Baiid (So near yet so far), Intihar (Suicide) and Hayda Lubnan (“This is Lebanon”) which received the Excellency Award at the Yamagata film festival, and was broadcasted on ARTE/ZDF/ Al Jadeed and NHK. Layali Bala Noom (Sleepless nights) is her first feature documentary. With Nizar Hassan, she founded ITAR productions, and the cross media documentary Arabi Hor (Free Arabs) www.arabihor.com , a project on the dailies of people within the Arab revolutions, that produced 160 short documentaries aired online. She is also one of the founders of the cultural cooperative for cinema Beirut DC , where she was the artistic director of “Ayam Beirut al Cinem’iya” film festival for 6 editions.
Tom McCarthy is the writer and director of THE STATION AGENT, THE VISITOR, and WIN WIN. He also shared story credit on Pixar’s UP for which he received an Oscar nomination. McCarthy, primarily known for his acting before entering the filmmaking scene, continues his career as an actor and has appeared in such films as FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, SYRIANA, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, MEET THE PARENTS, ALL THE KING’S MEN, and on the final season of HBO’s THE WIRE. McCarthy has just finished filming his latest writing/directing endeavor, THE COBBLER, starring Adam Sandler and Dustin Hoffman. He is currently editing the film.
