A truck burns in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and a young woman, Gamra, vanishes. Her cousin Yasser goes looking for her, but on the road he strikes a man from a rival clan. The accident threatens to set off a cycle of revenge. To prevent it, his family offers his sisters, Jawaher and Rim, to the other clan. Neither woman caused the conflict; both are expected to pay for it. One meets the demand with outward composure, the other struggles against it. What kind of peace is purchased with a woman’s life?Rim Al Mawla and Jawaher Al Mawla, both non-professional performers from the region, give the sisters distinct lives beyond the roles assigned to them by their families. Rim’s resistance is felt in her restless energy; Jawaher’s quiet carries a different, equally moving weight. Mayasi lets gestures, waiting and shared space reveal their bond. Pôl Seif’s cinematography places them amid the Bekaa’s wide landscapes, then finds them hemmed in by doorways, windows and the edges of the frame. Beauty and confinement coexist.Inspired in part by the director’s grandmother, who was forced to marry at fourteen, Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep examines a custom in which women become the means of settling men’s disputes. Mayasi filmed without a conventional script, working with people from the region. That closeness is felt in the rhythms of daily work and in the time allowed for a farewell. The film knows that violence does not begin only when someone raises a hand: it can reside in a decision made calmly, in a room where those most affected are expected to remain silent. Yet its women are never reduced to their suffering. Their wishes and their bond give this striking first feature its emotional force.Teresa Cavina