The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing

On the evening of her father's funeral, while his family recites suras from the Koran, Noun interrupts the ceremony. Faithful to the memory of her father, a writer and journalist, a freedom fighter, she decides to put an end to this memorial and to make sure that her father's last wishes are respected: to be buried to a jazz tune. Locked up with the dead body, Noun looks back on her experience in Lebanon. She reminisces about the war, the straitjacket of religion, the weight of prejudice and her struggle against an all-powerful male society that forbids women to speak. Le Jour où Nina Simone a cessé de chanter (The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing) was an instant sensation when it was first performed as a one-woman play at the Avignon festival in July 2007: it sold out at every performance and resulted in multiple runs in Paris and throughout France.