The film 17 ليلة (The Night of 17), which documents the 100 days after the start of the Lebanese Revolution on October 17th, 2019, will be nominated for several international festivals after it “won” the appreciation and admiration of prominent film directors in Lebanon and abroad.
The Night 17 is written by Journalist Ricardo Chidiac and directed by multiple award-winning filmmaker Anthony Merchak.
Merchak is also now winning several more awards in the United States for his documentary “Beirut After 40” showcasing the first minutes of the Beirut Blast using real footage.
The Night of 17 was first shown on MTV on the eve of the second anniversary of the start of the Lebanese Revolution on October 17th and received unexpected reactions from the Lebanese public opinion and among the Lebanese in the diaspora.
“This film is an opportunity to keep the banner of the revolution raised as an alternative to the dark reality in which Lebanon is sinking. Thank God for his success,” Ricardo Chidiac said in a tweet.
The Lebanese Revolution was held up by the unexpected surge of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the revolutionaries out of the streets and into lockdowns. However, it hasn’t ended as its activities have switched to social media and online forums until such time in which it can resume on the ground.
The Lebanese Revolution is still calling for its demands to be met; demands that could have spared the collapse of the country should the ruling body have heeded them and prompted the needed reforms.
Instead, the neglect of the ruling body to heed the people catapulted Lebanon into its today’s “dark reality.”
This documentary not only revives hope in the power of the people but also “raises the flag of the revolution” worldwide, conveying to the world the Lebanese people’s anger, frustration, and dissatisfaction with the political regime.
The current political regime has caused one of the world’s most disastrous economic crises in modern history.
It has led to a catastrophic devaluation of the local currency, hyperinflation, a skyrocketing rate in poverty, children at grave risk of malnutrition, youth compelled to abandon their education, and a brain drain with an alarming increase in emigration; to name a few.
