Carlos
Chahine
Born in Lebanon, Carlos Chahine left his native country in 1975 because of the war. After studying science, he discovered theater and entered the TNS school in Strasbourg, group 23. He went on to work under directors including Matthias Langhoff, Sylviu Purcarete, Alain Françon, etc.
It was thanks to the cinema, as an actor and director, that he can return to his native land. He has written and directed a family trilogy, La route du Nord a film about his father, Chekhov in Beirut, a documentary about theater and mother, and finally Le Fils du joueur, a film about children and the beginning of exile. La nuit du verre d'eau is his first feature film.
La nuit du verre d'eau
As new terrorist attacks set Beirut ablaze, two French, Hélène and her 30-year-old son René arrive in a village in the Vallée Sainte, a region in the remote mountains of Lebanon. That same day, the statue weeping tears of blood. The two French get to know of the local bourgeoisie, including Layla, a young mother, always accompanied by her 6-year-old son Charles. Layla experiences a carnal passion with René that makes her realize her condition as a woman subject to the laws of men: the father who decided her marriage, the husband who "owns" her, and finally the son who demands his mother's presence permanently. At the same time, Layla has to deal with the explosive situation surrounding the forthcoming marriage of her two sisters. Eva and Nada, aged 17 and 20, the only "resources" left by their father, who is constantly trying to marry off his daughters. While waiting for a war that doesn't reach the village, it's to other wars, that we are witnessing. Between men and women, Christians and Muslims, lords and peasants, and tradition and modernity. At the end of the summer, Lebanon was saved and its golden age could begin. No one yet know that these are the final years of a dying world and a country on its way to annihilation.
