Eliane Raheb

Eliane Raheb (; born 1972) is a documentary filmmaker and director from Lebanon. She made her debut as a director with her 2012 film, Layali Bala Noom (Sleepless Nights).

Early life and education Eliane Raheb was born in 1972 in Lebanon, where she spent most of her youth during the Lebanese Civil War. In a 2014 interview, Raheb described her youth during the war: "I remember moving from one place to the next in search of shelter, like everyone else at the time. We lived through hard and painful moments. Despite that, we prevailed: we went to school and carried on with our lives... I will never forget the days of social harmony, when everyone would help the other." She was 19 when the war ended.

Raheb's grandfather owned a theatre in Zahlé that sparked her interest in film. She said her family often took refuge in her grandfather's theatre during the war and would watch films there. She began acting in theatre, working with Roger Assaf. Alongside acting, she began to write and direct theatre. Raheb then moved from theatre to film, studying at IESAV in Beirut.

Career Early career Raheb's directorial debut was her 1995 short film The Last Screening, which revolves around the relationship between a girl and her grandfather's theatre. To that end, Sleepless Nights depicts the lives of Assaad Chaftari, an ex-intelligence officer and a high-ranking member of a right-wing militia, who killed many people; and Maryam Saiidi, whose son went missing in 1982. Raheb devised Sleepless Nights after taking an interest in Chaftari's story. Through her research and interview with him, Eliane covered the two conflicting narratives that are present in the film. Jay Weissberg, writing for Variety, said, "It's hard to find a Lebanese film that doesn't focus on the bloody civil war. And yet it is even harder to find a film that treats this topic better than Sleepless Nights."

Miguel's War In 2021, Raheb produced and directed Miguel's War, a hybrid documentary which follows a gay man who returns to Lebanon after 37 years in exile in Spain. The film received the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ film at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1999, she founded Beirut DC, a cultural association that supports and promotes the work of independent filmmakers in Lebanon through co-production and screenings. Viola Shafik, author of Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity, referred to Raheb's association Beirut DC as a "backbone of Lebanese alternative film art".

Style and themes Raheb is interested in Lebanese experiences. Commenting on her own work, Raheb stated, "In the absence of a film industry structure in Lebanon, short films have performed the invaluable task of chronicling life in Lebanon after the war. They provide the material for a potential cinema." She described that cinema is a tool that should be used to unravel Lebanon's past. Later, she said, "The war lingers in my head, and I always search for it traces. So I wanted to ask my questions on the screen". She began working on her first socio-political documentary in 2000.

Filmography