Randa Chahal Sabbag

Nacimiento : 1953-12-11, Tripoli, Lebanon

Muerte : 2008-08-25

Historia

Randa Chahal Sabbag is among the most talented filmmakers of her generation, and though she has received numerous international awards, including the prestigious Silver Lion at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival, her body of work remains relatively unknown. Most subjects dealt within the filmmaker’s nine fiction films and documentaries present unexpected encounters between the absurdity of war stories and the gentle bitterness of solitary, thoughtful characters. Known for their satirical tone and trenchant dialogue, Randa Chahal Sabbag’s films have long been considered provocative, upsetting a certain convention or political correctness. Moreover it wasn’t until 2003, when her film The Kite received the Silver Lion award, that film critics began to recognize on her work.

Películas

The Kite
Director
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.
Souha, Surviving Hell
Director
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
Civilisées
Writer
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
Director
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.
The Infidels
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
Director
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.
Our Heedless Wars
Director
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.
Step by Step
Director