Synopsis

In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba deals with a forgotten revolution, saving from oblivion bloodily suppressed strikes at Lebanese tobacco and chocolate factories. These events from the 1970s, which held the promise of a popular revolution and, with it, of women’s emancipation were erased from collective memory by the country’s civil wars. Rich in archival footage from Lebanon’s militant cinema tradition, the film reconstructs the spirit of that revolt, asking of the past how we might transform the present. 

Director Biography

Mary Jirmanus Saba is a filmmaker and geographer. Her work explores labor, agrarian and working women’s movements in the Middle East and Latin America, the militant images of both regions, and their usefulness for the present. Her feature debut film “A Feeling Greater Than Love” won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at the 2017 Berlinale International Film Festival FORUM. She lives and works in Beirut.