TO CLOSE YOUR EYES
AND SEE FIRE 

The first feature documentary by Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer premiered at the International Zurich Film Festival in October 2024 and received the awards for Best Documentary and Best Music at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival 2025. The Austrian Premiere takes place at the Diagonale’25.

The film is a long term documentary about Beirut's inhabitants, who are furious about needing to play the role of the phoenix. In the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, the city faces the challenge of healing while new crises inflict further wounds. Who will leave the country and at what cost? TO CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE FIRE is a poetic mosaic about the vacuum in life after tragedy.