| The Valley of Tears | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Maryanne Zéhil |
| Producer: | Maryanne Zehil |
| Cinematography: | Pierre Mignot |
| Editing: | Lorraine Dufour |
| Music: | Nathalie Coupal |
| Studio: | Mia Productions |
| Distributor: | Les Films Seville |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | French |
The Valley of Tears (French: La Vallée des larmes) is a Quebec film produced, written and directed by Maryanne Zéhil, starring Nathalie Coupal, Joseph Antaki, Nathalie Mallette, Sophie Cadieux, Henri Chassé, Wafa Tarabey, Layla Hakim and Janine Sutto. It is Zehil's second full-length feature film.
The film recounts the 1982 massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, Lebanon. Marie, a Montreal publisher, receives a written testimony from a man named Ali, who experienced the events firsthand. Marie is unaware that Joseph, a Lebanese employee of the publishing house, is the real author of the testimony. One day, Joseph goes missing.[1] [2]
Setting her story amidst the unpunished genocide of the 1982 massacres, Zehil raises the question of the responsibility of mothers in sending their sons to their deaths. Her film suggests that if Arab and Israeli mothers were held partly accountable, they might stop passing their thirst for revenge on to their children. To evoke the horrors of this setting, Zehil drew heavily on her experience working as a journalist in her native country of Lebanon.[3] [4]