EXCLUSIVE: L’Atelier Distribution has acquired Rakan Mayasi’s Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep for distribution in France.
The debut feature will have its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival (May 12-23) this month. Discussions are underway for territories including MENA, UK-Ireland and North America.
The film takes place in a Bedouin community in the Bekaa Valley between Lebanon and Syria. A man named Yasser sets out to find his missing cousin Gamra, only to run over a man from a rival tribe. His sisters Rim and Jawaher are then chosen to walk into the night as an offering, with tensions rising across the village.
It is produced by Jennifer Ritter of Belgium’s Atata and Mayasi, and is an international co-production between Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - associated with TCPC, Lux Motus Tempus, Mayana Films and Naoko Films.
The film was backed by the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter, Be TV & Orange, Proximus, the Red Sea Fund, the Doha Film Institute and the Palestine Film Fund.
“We fell in love with Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep - a powerful, poetic film that moved us deeply,” said Hughes Peysson and Pierre Paga, L’Atelier Distribution founders. “Through its story of disappearance and its ripple effects on a Bedouin community, it explores tribal codes, vengeance, sacrifice and the strength of women.”
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