To deal with his insomnia, Mohamed Soueid meets various people and close friends and asks them to tell him stories that could help him get a good night's sleep. Shot over a period of 15 years in a multitude of locations across Beirut, the tale brushes with melancholy, yearning, tenderness, everyday camaraderie, personal histories, and an all-consuming love of cinema.

Mohamed Soueid (b. 1959, Beirut) is a Lebanese writer, director and producer. Soueid is widely regarded as Beirut’s first video artist, a pioneer of the wide-ranging visual experimentation that has made the city a hub for video production over the last twenty years. He has directed several films, including Tango of Yearning (1998), Nightfall (2000), Civil War (2002) og How Bitter My Sweet (2009). Soueid is the author of three books on Lebanese cinema and film. He is currently the Head of Documentary department at the Al Arabiya News Channel.

Rana Issa is Senior researcher in the Department of Cultural History and Oriental Languages, at the University of Oslo. She works at the balancing point between public humanities, activist engagements, and academic curiosity. She writes in a variety of genres and languages and has occupied leadership roles in various aspects of academic and cultural production. She is currently writing a bilingual (Norwegian and Arabic) queer memoir on motherhood. She is co-recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts award. Her book The Modern Arabic Bible was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2023.

The program series Suspended Presents, Stolen Futures: Sci-Fi, Humor and Nostalgia in New Arab Cinema is curated by filmmaker Mira Adoumier and head of program at Kunstnernes Hus Cinema Silja Espolin Johnson and supported by the Norwegian Film Institute.

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