release date June 16 2024
Myriam El Hajj's DIARIES FROM LEBANON set to premiere at five different festivals this June
After a show-stopping world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival last February, Myriam El Hajj’s Lebanese feature-length documentary DIARIES FROM LEBANON is poised to kick off quite the festival tour, with screenings lined up at five different festivals throughout the entirety of June.
The film’s anticipated festival tour will kick off with an in-competition screening at the Geneva International Oriental Film Festival on June 13th at 6:30 pm with director Myriam El Hajj present.
It will then make its way to the Arts of Lebanon Festival in the UK, where it will be screening on June 16th at 2:30 pm. After that, it will be taking a trip all the way to China for its Asian premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Panorama Section on June 19th at 6:30 pm.
From there, DIARIES FROM LEBANON will head to France for two screenings at the Champs Elysées Film Festival — where the film will be competing for the festival’s Longs Métrages Français Prix Du Jury — one on June 22nd, 8:30 pm, at Room 2 of PublicisCinémas, and another on June 24th, 6 pm, at Room 1 of The Lincoln.
Lastly, the film will also be holding its Polish premiere at the Tofifest - Toruń International Film Festival as part of the festival’s Independent Women section on June 26th at 7 pm.
Most recently, DIARIES FROM LEBANON screened at two festivals in Canada: The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Doxa Documentary Film Festival. It also screened at the Visions du Réel International Film Festival in Switzerland.
The docudrama takes place in Lebanon, where, 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?
DIARIES FROM LEBANON was written, directed, and co-lensed by El Hajj alongside Jihad Saadé and Mohamed Siam, produced by Sassine of Abbout Productions and Ruszniewski of GoGoGo Films, and edited by Anita Perez and Stéphanie Sicard. The documentary features author and activist Joumana Haddad, Lebanese war veteran Georges Moufarej, and artist and activist Perla Joe Maalouli.
Myriam El Hajj is a Lebanese filmmaker whose first feature-length documentary, A TIME TO REST, premiered at Visions du Réel-Nyon in 2015 and screened at several international festivals, winning multiple awards.
She teaches cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts and is a member of several film commissions, including the CNC and Doha Film Institute. She’s also a founding member of Rawiyat-Sisters in Film — a collective of women filmmakers from the Arab World and the diaspora.
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