Civilisées (''A Civilized People'' or ''Al Mutahaddirat'') is a 1999 Lebanese

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by filmmaker

Randa Chahal Sabag Randa Chahal Sabbagh (Arabic: رندا شهال صباغ) was a Lebanese film director, producer and screenwriter. Chahal was born December 11, 1953 in Tripoli, Lebanon to an Iraqi mother and a Lebanese father. She died of cancer August 25, 200 ...

. The film premiered at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

on September 4, 1999 and later screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

. The film was also screened at the

Arab Film Festival The Arab Film Festival (AFF) is the flagship program of the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) a nonprofit organization that hosts the largest and longest-running independent Arab film festival in the United States. It is held in California each ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Premise

During the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

(1975-1990), many well-off Lebanese families fled the country to look for their personal interests internationally, leaving their residences under the care of maids and laborers from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The film draws a portrait of a war-tormented

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

neighborhood, and the love between a Muslim militia fighter and a Christian maid.

Cast

* Jalila Baccar as Viviane * Tamim Chahal as Samir * Myrna Maakaron as Souad *

Carmen Lebbos Carmen Lebbos ( ar, كارمن لبّس; born 22 February 1963) is a Lebanese theater, television, and film actress who has worked in film, television actress. Lebbos has been active since 1981; she has been in several television series and movi ...

as Najat *

Sotigui Kouyaté Sotigui Kouyaté (19 July 1936 – 17 April 2010) was one of the first Malian, Burkinabé actors. He was the father of film director Dani Kouyaté, of the storyteller Hassane Kassi Kouyaté and of the actor Mabô Kouyaté and was a member of th ...

as Ousmane * Renée Deek as Thérèse *

Bruno Todeschini Bruno Todeschini (born 19 September 1962) is a Franco-Swiss actor. Life and career Todeschini studied at L'école supérieure d'art dramatique in Genève and after graduating in 1986, he joined the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, directed by Pat ...

as Antoine

Release

Due to the controversial topic of the film and its critique of the Lebanese elite, it had only one screening in Lebanon at the

Beirut International Film Festival A growing number of film festivals are held in the Arab world to showcase films from the region as well as international standouts. In addition, institutions and organizations in other parts of the world are increasingly honoring the new generation ...

, and was also later banned by the Lebanese Film Commission. However, it received positive responses from international audiences, including at film festivals in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Accolades

In 2000, the film won the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. At the 1999 Venice Film Festival, the film won the UNESCO Award (tied with ''Zion, Auto-Emancipatio''n) and was nominated for the Cinema of the Present - Lion of the Year Award.

References

External links

* * 1999 black comedy films 1999 comedy-drama films 1999 films 1999 multilingual films 1990s French-language films 1990s Arabic-language films Lebanese Civil War films Lebanese comedy-drama films Films directed by Randa Chahal Sabag Interfaith romance films Lebanese multilingual films {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub