Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep

A burnt-out lorry and a fatal accident threaten to set off a spiral of violence within the Bedouin community in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Within the accused family, sisters Rim (Rim Al Mawla) and Jawaher (Jawaher Al Mawla), each with a very different temperament, must pay the price with their freedom. Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi shot his debut feature without a traditional script and with a cast of untrained actors. Thanks to Pôl Seif's beautiful cinematography, Mayasi steeps his film in rich observations of the mountain landscape, the atmosphere and the rituals within the shepherding community. Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep poetically explores what unfolds in the silence, between the fields, behind the curtains, in delivery vans. It is about women carrying too much with them, men speaking in codes, a country holding its breath, unable to find sleep.