Chahal began her career with documentary films but shifted to feature films by the 1990s, though she retained 'a documentary-maker's nose for contentious subject matter'. Chahal served as a jury member at the
Venice 64th International Film Festival in the Opera Prima section.
Les Infidèles, a 1997 drama, is about the relationship between a French diplomat and a former Islamist who agrees to turn over the names of his colleagues if the French government will release an imprisoned friend.
Civilisées (A Civilized People) released in 1999, is a black comedy about the
Lebanese Civil War, which killed at least 100,000 people. Sabbagh deployed a 'vaudevillian cast' ==Filmography==