Biography

Randa Chahal Sabbag (born 11 December 1953) was a Lebanese film director, producer and screenwriter. She was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, to an Iraqi mother and a Lebanese father. Though Chahal received numerous international awards, including the prestigious Silver Lion at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival, her body of work remains relatively unknown. Most subjects in Chahal's nine narrative films and documentaries dealt with encounters between the absurdity of war stories and the gentle bitterness of solitary, thoughtful characters. Known for their satirical tone and trenchant dialogue, her films have long been considered provocative. Around 40 minutes of her 1999 film Civilisées (A Civilized People), a black comedy about the Lebanese Civil War, were censored and thus the film was only screened once. Film critics began to recognize Chahal's work in 2003, when her feature The Kite won the Silver Lion award and several other prestigious prizes. That year, she received the National Order of the Cedar decoration in the grade of Officer from the country of Lebanon. Chahal died at age 54 in Paris, France, leaving one announced film unreleased.