Note: For each individual ticket purchased to the September 30 screening of this film, CIFF will donate $2 to USAY (Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth)

In the quiet fog of the Bekaa Valley, on the border between Lebanon and Syria, someone sets fire to a truck, and with it a spark of trouble spreads through a tightly woven Bedouin community. Gamra is gone — maybe hiding, maybe running — and her cousin Yaser takes to the roads to find her. The deeper he looks, the more he runs into ghosts, old grudges and the slow, burning logic of revenge.

Back home, his sisters, Jawaher and Reem, are chosen to make things right. They are not asked, they are offered. One is calm, the other resisting, but both know how quickly girls can be traded for peace. This is a story about what happens in the quiet, between fields, and behind curtains.

YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN'T SLEEP is the stunning feature debut of Palestinian director Rakan Mayasi. Shot without a traditional script and featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors: Rim Al Mawla, Jawaher Al Mawla and Yasser Al Mawla, playing versions of a real Bedouin family in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Caméra d'Or.