26/09/2024 - Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer’s documentary is set in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut explosion and zooms in on some of its survivors

Beirut lies in ruins. After the explosion in the city’s port, collective trauma rises to the surface. How can life go on after such a tragedy? We carefully observe the subsequent three years and zoom in on the lives of Aya, a Syrian refugee girl; Selim, an activist and painter; the Aladdin family, who are mourning a tragic loss; Yasmin, who picks up calls at a suicide prevention hotline; and Andrea, who still believes in the city’s spark for change. Meanwhile, a smouldering fire keeps on lingering in the port’s silos like a cautionary tale. Is it time to leave?

This is the premise of Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer’s To Close Your Eyes and See Fire [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a documentary set to world-premiere at this year’s Zurich Film Festival (3-13 October).

To Close Your Eyes and See Fire is being staged by Sauer and von Leffern, along with Peter Drössler, Arash T Riahi and Sabine Gruber for Austria’s Golden Girls Filmproduktion. The feature was supported by ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen, the Federal Ministry for Arts And Culture (BMKÖS), the City of Vienna’s Cultural Department MA7 and the Screenwriters Forum Vienna/Scriptlab. Taskovski Film is in charge of the pic’s world sales.

Check out our exclusive teaser and poster (© Jonas Zieher) below: