Rome, October 22 (askanews) - After being presented at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section, Rakan Mayasi, a Palestinian independent director born in Germany, brought his feature film debut, “Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep,” to the Rome Film Festival (in the Progressive Cinema Competition and Best First Film), in Italian theaters in March 2027 (distributed by Trent Film). Set in the Bekaa Valley, on the border between Lebanon and Syria, it tells the story of the difficult coexistence between Bedouin tribes, amidst traditions and codes that must be respected.
When a girl disappears, her cousin, while searching, runs over a man from the rival tribe and to avoid revenge, her sisters are sacrificed and promised in marriage to the opposing family. A film that, starting from a family drama, shows a rigid patriarchal society with women used as bargaining chips. "My grandmother was given in marriage at 14, I was very close to her and every time she told me her story I was deeply touched.
"I thought the best thing to do was make a film in homage to my grandmother," the director said. "But I had to find a way to tell more than just her story, to find an interpretation. She died three months before I started shooting, and carrying that weight and emotion on set was quite tiring," he added. The tribal conflict is a metaphor for much more, Mayasi explained: "It's not just a story of tribal revenge or a tribal or blood feud.
It's a metaphor for the world: for me, it's also a very political film, because it was shot on the border between Lebanon and Syria. While we were filming, Israeli planes were attacking Lebanon and Syria during the ceasefire. So it's political in a systematic sense, and it's also political in the way it was shot. "I belong to the Palestinian diaspora," he explained. "I hope to see my country one day, but I live between Brussels and Beirut. The situation is terrible, even in Beirut. You always hear Israeli drones in the sky, and you never know how long the war will continue or if there will be an explosion. So it's not easy to take a film crew, take a risk, and shoot a film there in these conditions. It's a different kind of cinema." "But it's very important to make our voices heard," he said, referring to his participation in the Festival, "especially because I'm a Palestinian director and we're going through a process of erasure, so for me it's very, very important that this film be seen."
Askanews