The film was directed by Australian-Lebanese filmmaker and journalist Daizy Gedeon.
Lebanese documentary Enough: Lebanon’s Darkest Hour has won the Movie That Matters Award 2021 at a Better World Fund (BWF) gala in Cannes.
Directed by Australian-Lebanese filmmaker and journalist Daizy Gedeon, the documentary follows her personal and independent introspection into Lebanon’s descent into a state of turmoil over recent years.
Writing on Instagram, Gedeon said: “I am truly honoured to have received the Better World Fund’s Movie That Matters Award for my film ‘Enough: Lebanon’s Darkest Hour’ at the Cannes Film Festival this week. This film lays bare all the insidious forces currently at work ruining my beautiful homeland, Lebanon.”
In a statement, she added: “I had regularly returned to my ancestral homeland since I released my debut film, Lebanon…Imprisoned Splendour, in 1996 which addressed the misperception of Lebanon, as portrayed by the western media, as a land of terror, car bombings and kidnappings because of the 15-year civil war from 1975-1990. But over the next 20 years, instead of seeing strides in growth and development, hope and opportunity, I experienced anger, desperation, and hopelessness among the people who were being forced to endure a system that couldn’t even provide reliable basic services and infrastructure – no roads, no clean water, no electricity, no garbage collection, no jobs, no justice.”
Gedeon and her family fled Lebanon in the 1970s during the country’s civil war.
The Movie That Matters Award was established in 2016 and is a rare honour handed by filmfestivals.com to moviemakers with a strong, inspiring message. Only a few films have received the award since its creation.
Shot over four years and across four continents, the film highlights the 2019 October revolution and the global social justice movement that was triggered among the millions of Lebanese diasporas who rallied to support their families and friends back home.
The documentary also features exclusive interviews with key political leaders such as prime minister, Saad Hariri, former justice minister, Salim Jreissati, Hezbollah minister, Muhammad Fneich, and governor of the central bank, Riad Salame.
