Mother Valley

Pitch

Lebanon, during the summer of 1958: three sisters from the Christian upper class are on holiday in the Lebanese mountains. The quiet life in the village is disrupted by the echoes of a revolution brewing in Beirut and by the arrival of two French holiday makers. However, it is from inside the family itself that the real upheaval will originate. The eldest sister, Layla, a perfect wife and mother, will open her eyes to the patriarchal society which controls them. In the young Lebanon dreaming of a golden age, can a woman have a destiny other than the one predetermined for her by men? “In 1943, with the newfound independence of Lebanon, the yearning for modernity ran up against the walls of religious conservatism in this multi-denominational region of the world, which nonetheless lived in harmony. Everything was done to ensure that the situation would become tense and deteriorate, that this dream of a nation would not come true, that the population would be afraid of modernity and swear only by tradition. The Lebanon people dreamed of back then was an illusion.” Carlos Chahine