The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli
Director
Rania Rafei
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar / 2026
120 min.
/ Original version with English subtitles
Original language
Arabic, English
The history of a city, its wars and uprisings. Taking the student protests that ushered in independence from France in 1943, Rania Rafei traces the back and forth between upheaval and consistency, discord and unity in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-biggest city. Connecting the personal and the political as well as the intimate and the collective, the film gives the city and its inhabitants a stage across different eras and generations, employing an open form that combines a cinematic letter to her dead father, family stories, archive material and the exploration of a present in which history has been forgotten. Listening, voiceover: ordered chronologically, kaleidoscopic in its effect. The hopes surrounding the Pan-Arabism of the 1960s and defeat in the Six-Day War are followed by days of fury – in the factions that formed during and after the civil war or the protests since 2019 against the catastrophic economic situation, omnipresent corruption and the sectarian system. A film as an act of political tenderness between confidence and disillusionment, wrangling and confession. The desire for change is strong. (Fabian Tietke)
Rania Rafei is a Lebanese filmmaker whose work engages with social and political themes. She has directed numerous television documentaries exploring contemporary issues in Lebanon, the Arab region, and internationally. Her debut feature film, 74: The Reconstitution of a Struggle, premiered at the FIDMarseille International Film Festival in 2011 and was screened at festivals worldwide. Her second feature documentary, The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli, explores the political history and identity of her hometown.
Director Rania Rafei. Screenplay Rania Rafei. Cinematography Jocelyne Abi Gebrayel. Editing Rania Rafei. Music Fadi Tabbal. Sound Design Rania Rafei. Producer Jinane Dagher. Executive Producer Jinane Dagher. Production company Orjouane Productions (Beirut, Lebanon).
Films: 2010: Notes on Love in Copenhagen (short documentary). 2011: Prologue (short documentary, co-directed by Raed Rafei). 2012: 74: The Reconstitution of a Struggle (documentary, co-directed by Raed Rafei). 2014: Citi(es) of Beirut: purgatory of anticipated ruins (video installation, co-directed by Jinane Dagher). 2026: The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli.
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