Films in shooting or post-production
Grey Glow
Synopsis
Fifty-five-year-old Nayla is a supervisor at a factory in a Beirut suburb, and struggles to ensure her family’s survival. The war in the south of the country threatens to spill over at any moment, in a country plagued by an economic collapse. Her unemployed, alcoholic husband Mounir, an ex-Civil War militiaman, spends his time watching television. The couple’s feeling of unease fluctuates between aggression and guilt. One night, their twenty-three-year-old daughter Rania knocks over a man while driving home. Nayla is caught up in a vicious circle: She finds herself with Rania, in hospital, facing a family from “the other side.” Animosity and curiosity alternate. For the first time in a long while, Nayla does some deep soul-searching. Her relationship with her husband worsens. But the injured man's condition suddenly deteriorates and he dies. Rania is taken to prison.
Bassem Fayad
Simon Haber
Cynthia Zaven
Christine Chouéri, Gabriel Yamine, Tracy Younes, Ammar Chalak, Wafak Taraby, Salma Chalabi
Orjouane Productions (Lebanon)
Sabine Sidawi
Djinn House Productions (Lebanon)
Michèle Tyan
Director’s statement
Nayla is at a turning point in her life. I observe her in a drowning couple, in the deeply wounded city of Beirut, where thinking about “tomorrow,” in all its hypothetical aspects, is itself a source of exhaustion. Through her, I scrutinize women who silently take on, in spite of themselves, the burden of their whole family, as a kind of instinct and duty. These women are not locked up, nor oppressed; they are simply devoted. One night, Nayla’s daughter Rania knocks over an old man. The monotony in Nayla's daily life is brutally disrupted. The couple’s uneasy relationship explodes. Nayla understands she has lost the essence of herself. She questions her fossilized life, and rediscovers that she can be a desired woman, through the eyes of Oussama, the son of the victim. With Nayla, we delve into a touching and wounded town with multiple social and religious identities.
Biographies
Michèle Tyan is a Lebanese filmmaker. She has edited more than 50 independent films, many of which have won awards. She has directed three video essays: She; A Letter From a Friend (part of an omnibus film); and What Would Stones Be Without Flowers?, as well as four commissioned documentaries: Against the Current; Zakiratouna; Encounter With Emile Tyan; and Path of the Land. She has also line-produced feature-length films. Grey Glow is her first fiction feature as a director.
In 2007, Beirut-based producer Sabine Sidawi founded Orjouane Productions, which today is one of the most renowned production companies in Lebanon. She has produced or co-produced more than 35 films, both fiction and documentary, which have been screened and won awards at international festivals. Sidawi teaches film production at Lebanese universities and participates in several international training programs as an expert in Middle Eastern film production. In 2025, she produced Dima El-Horr’s documentary And Fish Fly Above Our Heads.
Doha Film Institute, AFAC, Francophonie
