In 2018, Joumana, a fiery feminist writer, poet and activist runs for election defying a political system that has been suffocating Lebanon for 40 years. She gets elected, only to be ousted the very next day through fraud, leaving her supporters furious.
In 2019, the people's rage turns into a revolution. The streets swell with thousands of voices. Among them Perla Joe, a fearless woman who rapidly becomes a symbol of this uprising. Her unyielding voice echoes the frustration of a youth struggling to find its place. But the past looms like a shadow over their aspirations for progress and change. Georges is the guardian of that mysterious and violent past. He is a veteran of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) where he lost a leg but clung to his delusions of “glory.”
In Diaries from Lebanon, director Myriam El Hajj 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?
Avec la participation de Joumana Haddad, Georges Moufarej, Perla Joe Maalouli
Myriam El Hajj is a Lebanese filmmaker. Her second feature documentary_Diaries from Lebanon_, premiered at Berlinale Panorama in 2024. She also teaches cinema at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts and is a founding member of Rawiyat-Sisters in Film, a collective of women filmmakers sailing from the Arab world and its diaspora.