The Insomnia of a Serial Dreamer
Spring Grants 2016
Mohamad Soueid / Feature Experimental or Essay / Lebanon, Qatar / 2020 / 170 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Creative Documentary
Synopsis
Facing his insomniac nature, the author of this film meets with several people, asking each one of them to tell him a story that will help him sleep – but this attempt goes on for years. After 15 years of shooting, interrupted on numerous occasions, none of the rushes – which were supposed to be edited and shaped into coherent, unified stories – have found their way into the intended film. Over the course of time, those rushes became dreams that have haunted the director over the years. As dreams have no end, so a film might have no end as well. Instead of making a film about a director’s attempt to cure himself of insomnia, the project becomes a film essay on a director’s voyage in time and a yearning for dreams made up of images and recollections gathered over the passing years.
Credits
- Director
- Mohamad Soueid
- Screenwriter
- Mohamad Soueid
- Producer
- Mohamad Soueid, Pamela Ghanimeh
About the Director
Born in Beirut in 1959, Mohamed Soueid is a Lebanese writer, director and producer. Currently, he is Head of Documentary at Al Arabiya News Channel. As a director, he has made several films, including ‘Tango of Yearning’ (1998), ‘Nightfall’ (2000), ‘Civil War’ (2002) and ‘How Bitter, My Sweet’ (2010). In addition, Soueid has written the books ‘Postponed Cinema – Lebanese Films During the Civil War’ (1986), ‘O Heart – A Film Autobiography on the Late Movie Theatres of Old Beirut’ (1996) and the novel ‘Cabaret Souad’ (2004).