MOVIES ARCHIVE
2025
A young girl’s kidnapping ignites a whirlwind of tension and suspicion in Algiers. Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a dedicated police inspector, attempt to uncover the perplexing mystery set against the backdrop of Algeria's Black Decade (1992—2002 civil war). This mystery/thriller is the debut feature of Chakib Taleb-Bendiab, who wrote, directed, co-edited, and scored the film.
Date: Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 8:45PM
RT: 92 mins.
Director: CHAKIB TALEB-BENDIAB
Coexistence, My Ass! Lebanese-Canadian documentarian Amber Fares follows Israeli comedian and activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi as she develops and performs her one-woman show addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Raised in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a cooperative village founded by Jews and Palestinians, Shuster-Eliassi's unique background informs her comedic approach to peace activism. The documentary captures her journey from working as a UN diplomat to embracing comedy as a tool for social change.
Awards
Sundance Film Festival 2025: World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression
Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival 2025: Golden Alexander Award for Best Documentary
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2025: Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award
Millennium Docs Against Gravity 2025: Lower Silesia Grand Prix
Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at 7PM
RT: 95 mins
Dir: AMBER FARES
On February 6, 2023 at 4:17 am local time, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and north eastern Syria. In a matter of minutes large parts of the southern Turkish cities of Antakya, Gaziantep, and Hatay were in ruins, and tens of thousands lay dead under the rubble.
In the aftermath of the earthquake there was no universal effort to save the injured and the dying under the rubble. Civilians were forced to use their hands and shovels to dig up loved ones and strangers, while the world looked the other way. Faulty constructions, criminal permissions, plus the lack of rescue efforts, caused the unnecessary death of 50,000, many of which could have been saved.
With access to incredible CCTV footage from above ground, remarkable first-person documentary footage from under the rubble, extensive verité footage (some recorded on cell phones), drone footage, news and archival footage, Death Without Mercy is chronologically assembled from the reports of hundreds of newscasters, cameramen, and civilians representing the days following this tragic event.
The film is built on the experiences of two Syrian families, following them over the course of 10 days after the disaster, as they piece together the tragedy and uncover revelations about the corruption, lies and government incompetence that exacerbated the disaster and its response.
Awards
Emmy’s 2025: Nominated for two Emmy’s: Outstanding Social Issue - Documentary and Outstanding Editing - Documentary
Date: Friday, July 11, 2025 at 8:45pm
RT: 84 mins.
Director: WAAD AL-KATEAB
While driving back from university in Jerusalem, Fifi, a young Palestinian woman is hospitalized following a car accident. Though her injuries are minor, she fears her newfound freedom at school will now come under the scrutiny of her conservative parents. Meanwhile, back in Haifa, Fifi’s older brother Rami panics as he faces his own personal crisis - Shirley, his Jewish girlfriend, reveals she is pregnant and plans to carry the baby to term. Behind closed doors, the family's deep financial troubles come into focus while Hanan, Fifi and Rami's mother, plans her eldest daughter's wedding.
Led by an incredible cast of mostly non-professional actors, Happy Holidays is a dynamic, socio-political family saga which thoughtfully considers the myriad intricacies of Israeli-Arab life. Directed by Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti (AJAMI).
Source: Variety
Awards
Venice Film Festival 2024: Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2024: Golden Alexander (Best Film)
Marrakech International Film Festival 2024: Étoile d'Or (Best Film)
Date: Friday, July 11, 2025 at 6PM
RT: 124 mins.
Director: SCANDAR COPTI
Il Signore (2024) is a comedy that follows Salem, a Saudi engineer who, after being overlooked for promotions in favor of foreign experts, decides to impersonate an Italian consultant named "Paolo" to secure a high-ranking position in a major company. His deception leads to unexpected success, but also entangles him with a dangerous gang, forcing Salem to confront the consequences of his actions and question his true identity. The film explores themes of identity, cultural perceptions, and the challenges faced by local professionals in a globalized workforce.
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 6PM
RT: 107 mins
Director: AYMEN KHOJA
Forced to leave Sudan for East Africa following the outbreak of war, five citizens of Khartoum—a civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer, and two young bottle collectors—reenact their stories of survival and freedom through dreams, revolution, and civil war. In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, and Timeea Ahmed joined with British director Phil Cox to chronicle the lives of their five participants. After a military coup, a war broke out that displaced over 10 million people, including the filmmakers and their subjects. Khartoum boldly demonstrates determination and invention borne out of necessity as the film team adapts their project to their new reality. Blending footage shot before their escape with imaginative green-screen sequences, the filmmakers create a safe space for their participants to share and process their experiences of conflict and exile—not without moments of hope and joy. The result is a singular, emotional, and personal journey into a devastating conflict that has gone underreported in the West.
Source: BAM
Awards
Berlinale 2025: Peace Film Prize & 3rd Place Audience Award
Amnesty International Film Award: Special Mention
FIFDH 2025: Gilda Vieira de Mello Prize at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva
FESCAAL 2025: City of Milan Audience Award
Hot Docs 2025: Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary
Docs Barcelona 2025: Jury Prize
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 9PM
RT: 80 mins
Dirs: ANAS SAEED / RAWIA ALHAG / IBRAHIM SNOOPY AHMAD / TIMEEA MOHAMED AHMED / PHILIP COX
Snow White is a drama that reimagines the classic fairy tale through a contemporary lens. The story follows Iman, a young Egyptian woman of short stature (119 cm), who navigates societal prejudices and familial expectations in her quest for love and acceptance. Facing challenges in arranged marriage prospects due to her height, Iman turns to online dating, concealing her appearance while showcasing her vibrant personality.
Awards
Red Sea International Film Festival 2024: Yusr Award for Best Actress
Date: Thursday, July 17, 2025 at 7PM
RT: 105 mins.
Director: TAGHRID ABOUELHASSAN
When Shams’ intersex identity is exposed, the young seamstress’ tranquil life unravels. Engaged in a steamy love triangle and targeted by an obsessive attacker, they escape to the capital city. Taking refuge with their lover’s mystic cousin, they grapple with their complex sense of self.
Date: Monday, July 14, 2025 at 7PM
RT: 96 mins
Director: NADA MEZNI
After learning that their late father left a huge sum of money behind after his death, Mariam and Noura come up with an elaborate scheme to circumvent the patriarchal inheritance laws that would give their expat brother half of the money.
Awards:
Winner Best Narrative Film at the 2024 Gouna Film Festival
Malmö Arab Film Festival: Best Screenwriter
Ninth Critics Awards for Arab Films at the 78th Cannes Film Festival: Best Film
Date: Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 6PM
RT: 97 mins.
Director : LAILA ABBAS
Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But, when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
Awards
Thessaloniki Film Festival: Fisher Audience Award
Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival: Antigone d’Or for Best Film
Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2025 at 7PM
RT: 106 mins
Director: MAHDI FLEIFEL
The Village Next to Paradise (2024) is the debut feature film by Somali-Austrian director Mo Harawe. Set in a windy Somali village, the story follows Mamargade, a single father striving to provide a better future for his son, Cigaal. Their lives take a turn with the arrival of Mamargade's sister, Araweelo, who returns home seeking a fresh start after her divorce. Together, the newly formed family navigates personal aspirations amidst the complexities of their environment, marked by conflict and the omnipresence of foreign drones.
Awards
Chicago International Film Festival: New Directors Award
Sarajevo Film Festival: Best Actress Award
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2025 at 7PM
RT: 132 mins
Dir: MO HARAWE
2024
This is a sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of multiple journeys: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggling with Alzheimer’s finds solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa of her youth.
After her mother’s passing, and as she is closing up their home, director Carol Mansour, meets friends willing to carry Aida back with them to Palestine. The film accompanies Carol as she engineers a way to return her mother, aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey. This journey is simultaneously very private and yet universal. It is a tribute to the lost past of the director’s family, an attempt to restore part of both an individual and a collective memory, and a poetic nod and affirmation to all those exiled Palestinians forbidden from returning to their hometowns, even after death.
Date: SATURDAY JULY 13, 2024
RT: 78 mins.
Director: CAROL MANSOUR
On August 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut leaves a large part of the Lebanese capital in ruins. In the midst of the chaos, the troubled crew making the film Costa Brava, Lebanon face an overwhelming decision: to continue the production of their movie or abandon it? As they deal with the aftermath of the catastrophe, they are torn between their firm belief in the transformative power of cinema and a deep sense of cynicism about its ability to effect change in a nation plagued by economic turmoil and societal collapse. Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano, follows their struggles, highlighting the crew's resilience as they strive to find meaning and purpose in their work amidst the devastation.
Join us for a Zoom Q&A with director Cyril Aris following the screening
Date: FRIDAY JULY 12, 2024
RT: 87 mins.
Director: CYRIL ARIS
With Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma.
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona, a retired northern Sudanese singer in a tense marriage, tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home. Unable to confess her transgressions to Julia, Mona decides to leave the past behind and adjust to a new status quo, unaware that the country’s turmoil may find its way into her home and put her face to face with her sins.
Date: THURSDAY JULY 11, 2024
RT: 120 mins.
Director: MOHAMAD KORDOFANI
With Abdulmohsen Alnemr, Alshaima'a Tayeb, Ibrahim Al-Hasaw
In the highly competitive world of Bedouin camel racing, Ghanim dreams of seizing victory in the annual Great Safwa Race to honor his legendary grandfather, known as Hajjan—“The Jockey.” After tragedy strikes when Ghanim is thrown off his mount by a mysterious golden rider, resulting in his death, Mattar, his younger brother, sets out to restore his family’s honor by becoming a Hajjan himself.
His quest for justice becomes a battle for freedom, suffused with magical realism. Hajjan is both an adventure story and a moving account of the deep bond that can develop between human and animal.
Date: SUNDAY JULY 14, 2024
RT: 117 mins.
Director: ABU BAKR SHAWKY
With Yassin Hamad Amin, Saidulla Faizulla, Chnar Imad Ghanm
Over 20 years after footage of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein crawling out of a hole in the ground became iconic, the modest farmer who hid the deposed president beneath a flowerbed in his garden for eight months tells his fantastical tale. On camera, the farmer recounts assuming the roles of presidential hairdresser, physician, and bodyguard—and the unlikely friendship that emerged, even as he ignored a $25 million bounty. The story is richly illustrated with re-enacted scenes interspersed with news reports of the time.
Date: SATURDAY JULY 13, 2024
RT: 92 mins.
Director: HALKAWT MUSTAFA
When the United States withdrew from its 20-year “forever war” in Afghanistan, the Taliban retook control of the ravaged country and immediately found an American base loaded with weaponry—a portion of the over $7 billion in US armaments still in the country. Unprecedented and audacious, director Ibrahim Nash’at’s Hollywoodgate spends a year inside Afghanistan following the Taliban as they take possession of the cache America left behind—and transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime.
Date: WEDNESDAY JULY 17, 2024
RT: 89 mins
Director: IBRAHIM NASH'AT
With Mouna Hawa, Haitham Alomari, Yumna Marwan.
The debut feature by director Amjad Al Rasheed, and the first-ever Jordanian film to premiere at Cannes, Inshallah a Boy tells the story of Nawal, who faces destitution after the sudden passing of her husband. In order to protect her daughter and save her home from an exploitative brother-in-law taking advantage of Jordan’s patriarchal inheritance laws, Nawal pretends to be pregnant with a son—a deception that grows harder to sustain as time passes, leaving her with a difficult path toward self-determination.
Date: SUNDAY JULY 14, 2024
RT: 113 mins.
Director: AMJAD AL RASHEED
With Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud
Having made a Hollywood splash with Bad Boys for Life (2020) and its newly released sequel, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the directorial duo Adil and Bilall turn their collective eye toward the turbulent Middle East with Rebel, a family drama in which two Muslim Belgian brothers struggle with radicalization. Hoping to turn his life around as his drug-dealing past closes in, Kamal leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria, but is forced to join ISIS on the battlefield. Back home, radical recruiters target Nassim, promising to reunite him with his older brother, while Leila, their devout mother, fights to protect her younger son. Punctuated with musical sequences, Rebel audaciously examines the corrupting allure of violence.
Date: MONDAY JULY 15, 2024
RT: 135 mins.
Directors: ADIL EL ARBI AND BILALL FALLAH
With Saleh Bakri, Muhammad Abed El Rahman, Imogen Poots
A Palestinian school teacher struggles to reconcile his risky commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students and the chance of a new relationship with a volunteer worker. The Teacher is the directorial feature-film debut of Farah Nabulsi, a Palestinian-British filmmaker born, raised, and educated in the UK, whose debut short film, The Present, won a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Oscar.
Date: TUESDAY JULY 16, 2024
RT: 115 mins.
Director: FARAH NABULSI
Isra’a lives with her husband Ahmed and their three children in the old port city of Aden in southern Yemen. Their everyday lives are shaped by the civil war – which means military checkpoints in the streets, frequent power cuts, and having to haul water from the street to the kitchen. Ahmed used to work for television, but after several salary checks were not paid, he is now earning his money as a driver. When Isra’a unexpectedly becomes pregnant, the couple faces a crisis. They both know they cannot afford a fourth child: they are about to move to a cheaper flat and the children’s school fees are due. Together they decide on an abortion. Thus the odyssey begins.
Director Amr Gamal has chosen to fictionalize a real-life story that occurred within his circle of friends. Set against the backdrop of one of the world’s most devastating civil wars, this sensitive family drama provides us with a glimpse into the society of a country largely unknown beyond its borders.
Date: SATURDAY JULY 13, 2024
RT: 91 mins.
Director: AMR GAMAL
The Third Rahbani is a documentary that sheds light on the life, career, and legacy of Lebanese composer Elias Rahbani (1938—2021). Drawing upon rich personal archives and numerous interviews, director Feyrouz Serhal reflects on the career of the younger brother of Assi and Mansour Rahbani, sibling composers globally known for their work with iconic singer Fairuz. Serhal’s film charts Elias Rahbani’s rise on the Lebanese and Arab music scene.
Date: FRIDAY JULY 12, 2024
RT: 80 mins.
Director: FEYROUZ SERHAL
With Muhammad Farrag, Nelly Karim, Bayoumi Fouad
Based on an incredible true story, Voy! Voy! Voy! relates the hilarious tale of Hassan, an Egyptian man who dreams of escaping poverty in Cairo, and fakes a visual impairment in order to join a team bound for the Blind Football World Cup in Poland.
Join us for a Q&A with director Omar Hilal following the screening.
Date: THURSDAY JULY 18, 2024
RT: 100 mins.
Director: OMAR HILAL
2023
In a dilapidated villa, lives an old guard who watches over an abandoned house. The house he considers his home sanctuary is all of a sudden threatened by a young parking attendant, leaving him forced to face his fears, his past and a world he no longer recognizes.
Date: Sunday July 16, 2023 at 8:30PM
RT: 90 mins.
Director: AHMAD ABDALLA
Mustafa, a Palestinian construction worker, lives 200 meters away from his wife Salwa and their children in villages separated by the Israeli border wall. Though his family are all Israeli citizens, Mustafa refuses to obtain a permit to live with them. Unwilling to succumb to what he believes are unjust laws, he instead uses his work permit to visit daily. However, one day he gets a call every parent dreads: his son, who is on the other side of the wall, has been injured and brought to the hospital.
Biographical Source: Rotten Tomatoes
Date: Saturday July 15, 2023 at 3:30PM
RT: 96 mins.
Director: AMEEN NAYFEH
From acclaimed filmmaker Basil Khalil (Academy Award-nominated director of Ave Maria) comes this comedy-adventure set against the backdrop of a sealed-off Israel.
Israel is on lockdown after the outbreak of a deadly virus and Gaza has become the safest place in the region, leaving a British journalist and his Israeli girlfriend trapped on the wrong side of the border. With no one else to turn to, they must entrust two Palestinian street merchants who promise a way out in exchange for much needed cash. What follows is a hilarious culture clash comedy-adventure as the couple desperately try everything to get back home.
An Official Selection of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and winner of its FIPRESCI Prize.
Date: Thursday July 20, 2023 at 7:00PM
RT: 90 mins.
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
Director: BASIL KHALIL
Halim and Mina run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco's oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Blue Caftan was Morocco's official entry for Best International Film at the 2023 95th Academy Awards.
Date: Tuesday July 18, 2023 at 7:00PM
RT: 123 mins.
Director: MARYAM TOUZANI
Adam, the son of a fisherman, is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo, the university's highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, suddenly dies and Adam soon becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt's religious and political elite.
Date: SUNDAY JULY 16 at 5:15PM
RT: 126 mins
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
Director: TARIK SALEH
Beirut, Lebanon, nowadays. Ahmed, a Syrian refugee, and Mehdia, an Ethiopian migrant domestic worker, are living an impossible love.
While Mehdia tries to free herself from her employers, Ahmed struggles to survive dealing in second-hand metal scraps, affected by a mysterious disease.
The two lovers have no future, but they have nothing to lose. One day, they take their chance and flee Beirut in a hopeful and desperate attempt to get away.
2022 Best Film Winner Label Europa Cinemas at the Venice Film Festival
Date: Wednesday July 19, 2023 at 9:30PM
RT: 90 mins.
Director: WISSAM CHARAF
Brothers As’ad (12) and Taha (28) barely scrape a living as rubbish pickers in ‘Hanging Gardens’—the local nickname for Baghdad’s smouldering dumps—yet they make the most of what they have.
One day, As’ad discovers an American sex doll. When he brings the taboo item home and presents her as a thing of beauty, Taha assaults his little brother for ruining their reputation. As’ad retreats to Hanging Gardens to make a new home for himself and his miraculous find.
When As’ad and his friend, Amir (14), discover the doll can speak, they teach her the language of seduction in Arabic and set her to work. Business rockets, raising their profile lucratively with local teens and dangerously with the local patriarch’s enforcers. As’ad questions their exploitation of the doll, yet before he can save her from further degradation, she’s kidnapped. As’ad and Amir go after the prime suspect, only to discover that he’s turned informant.
The patriarch has As’ad and Amir kidnapped so that he can exact his own cruel and humiliating punishments. As’ad survives to complete the journey he began and reconcile himself to the choices he’s made on his own terms.
Date: Monday July 17, 2023 at 7:00PM
RT: 117 mins.
Director: AHMED YASSIN AL DARADJI
Winner of the "Un Certain Regard" Best Screenplay Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, writer and director Maha Haj’s darkly funny and resonant film, Mediterranean Fever, pairs Waleed, a depressed and stubborn wannabe Palestinian living in Haifa, with Jalal, a small-time crook. As the two men develop an unlikely friendship, their love-hate rapport leads them on a journey of dark encounters.
Date: Sunday July 16, 2023 at 3:00PM
RT: 108 mins.
Director: MAHA HAJ
Casablanca, Morocco. A trio of women, with the police on their tail, embarks on a long escape, reminiscent of the American movie classic “Thelma and Louise” that takes them across the rugged red terrain and flower-filled valleys of the Atlas to finally reach the Atlantic coast.
Date: Friday July 16, 2023 at 7:00PM
RT: 83 mins
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
Director: YASMINE BENKIRAN
Saad, a young man who loves professional wrestling is excited when EEW, a professional wrestling promotion, announce they’re holding auditions in Riyadh. Saad goes to the audition hoping to become a Saudi wrestler and start his global journey from Riyadh to success. He fails the audition, but as luck would have it, he meets Ali Hogan, an eccentric man who offers to be Saad’s manager and promises to change his life.
Date: Saturday July 15, 2023 at 8:30PM
RT: 106 mins.
Director: ABDULLAH AL-ARAK
Actress Soula Bahri reenacts her own real-life experiences in Soula, the tragic story of an unwed mother in eastern Algeria, at the mercy of the few kind souls willing to assist a “disgraced” woman. Fleeing the murderous threats of an enraged father, Soula finds herself on the street with her baby girl, with nowhere to sleep and nowhere to go. Trapped within the confines of a misogynous culture and simply trying to make it through the night, Soula sets off on a somewhat desperate road trip, only to find herself a pawn in a system where men hold all the power and aren’t afraid to wield it with the utmost cruelty. Salah Issaad‘s debut feature is an up-close-and-personal portrait of a defenseless young woman and mother in a 100% man’s world.
THE AMERICAN FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL
Date: Saturday July 15, 2023 at 6:00PM
RT: 92 mins
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
Director: SALAH ISSAAD
In a claustrophobic East Amman neighborhood, where gossip and violence run rampant, Ali, a hustler who pretends to be a businessman, has a secret relationship with Lana. Their romance is kept hidden until one day Lana’s mother, Aseel, is blackmailed with a video of the young couple.
Hoping to avoid public embarrassment, Aseel discreetly convinces Abbas, a ruthless gangster, to put a stop to it… but things do not go so smoothly. Their lives start to intertwine and collide not just with each other, but with the other residents living amongst the same Alleys.
Date: Wednesday July 19, 2023 at 6:30PM
RT: 116 mins
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
Director: BASSEL GHANDOUR
2022
On a quiet street in Casablanca, Abla and her 8-year-old daughter Warda alternate between housework, homework, and running a small bakery. One night Samia, an unmarried pregnant woman, arrives looking for work. Abla reluctantly takes her in, and Samia begins to find a place both with Warda and at the bakery—although Abla is harder to win over. Morocco’s Oscar selection for Best International Feature Film, this tender drama shines with a graceful, unsentimental cinematic style and dynamic performances.
Date: Sunday, Sep 25, 2022 at 8PM
RT: 98 mins
Director: MARYAM TOUZANI
Seventeen-year-old Amira idolizes her father Nawar, although their interactions have been limited to prison visits for her entire life. A Palestinian freedom fighter, Nawar has been incarcerated since before marrying Amira’s mother, and Amira was conceived with smuggled sperm. When Nawar gets another opportunity to try to expand their family, Amira is initially thrilled—until the attempt reveals that he is not her biological father and sparks a crisis of identity and family.
Date: Sunday, Sep 25, 2022 at 5:00 PM
RT: 98 mins
Life and death meet in this story of a forbidden romance between an executioner’s son and a wedding musician’s daughter in turn-of-the-century Saudi Arabia. Offering a rare window into the working-class Black Saudi community in Riyadh, the second feature from Adbulaziz Alshlahei (Zero Distance) paints a nuanced portrait of community, class, and love as the couple struggle to balance what is owed to their families against their own desires.
Date: Thursday, Sep 29, 2022 at 7:00 PM
RT: 91 mins
In this flashy commentary on technology, media, and social connections, a struggling actor decides to host an Arabic dating show featuring a panel of competing women—and becomes a hated figure when the show is met with public outrage.
Date: Sunday, Sep 25, 2022 at 2:00 PM
RT: 74 mins
In this 2021 Oscar contender, the first Tunisian movie ever nominated for Best International Feature Film, Sam Ali, a young sensitive Syrian refugee who escapes to Lebanon, accepts to have his back tattooed by the World's most sulfurous contemporary artist so he can travel to Europe and reunite with his girlfriend. Sam will however come to realize that his decision might actually mean anything but freedom.
Date: Tuesday, Sep 27, 2022 at 7:00 PM
RT: 100 mins
Guled and Nasra, a loving couple, are living on the outskirts of Djibouti city, with their teenage son Mahad. Nasra urgently needs an expensive operation to treat a chronic kidney disease. Guled who already works hard as a gravedigger is having a hard time finding the money to save Nasra and keep his family together.
This poignant drama by Finnish-Somali writer-director Khadar Ahmed is a poetic study of love. Set amid the stark beauty of the desert, it reveals the power of fleeting moments in the life of a gravedigger determined to save his sick wife against all odds.
Date: Wednesday, Sep 28, 2022 at 7:00 PM
RT: 82 mins
Algeria, 1990s. Nedjma is an 18-year-old university student determined not to let the Algerian Civil War prevent her from enjoying young adulthood with her friends or pursuing her passion for fashion design. As terrorists push for a fundamentalist Islamic state and the social climate grows increasingly conservative, Nedjma puts together a fashion show in a defiant assertion of women’s rights to control their bodies, clothing, and lives. In her widely acclaimed debut film, director Mounia Meddor offers a piercing vision of female camaraderie and resilience.Nedjma, an 18 year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War keep her from experiencing a normal life and going out at night with her friend Wassila. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to fight for her freedom and independence by putting on a fashion show.
Date: Saturday, Sep 24, 2022 at 9:00 PM
RT: 108 mins
On Christmas Eve in Montreal, Alex and her mother Maia receive a package in the mail.
Inside are the countless notebooks, cassettes and photographs that Maia, between the ages of 13 and 18, sent from Beirut to her best friend who had left for Paris to escape the war. Maia refuses to open this Pandora’s box. Alex, on the other hand, is irresistibly attracted to these testimonies of an unknown past and discovers, between fantasy and reality, her mother’s tumultuous adolescence, her first love and the murderous war that rages, bringing to the surface well-kept secrets. With these revelations, Alex will convince her mother to return to Lebanon, after 25 years of exile, to face the ghosts of her past.
Date: Saturday, Sep 24, 2022 at 6:00 PM
RT: 82 mins
Reem, a young mother, takes an afternoon away from her controlling husband to visit Huda’s hair salon in Bethlehem. But the innocuous trip quickly turns sinister, when Reem is blackmailed in a vicious attempt to make her work for the Israeli secret service. Forced to choose between protecting her family and betraying her people, this fast-paced thriller from Academy Award-nominated director Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now, Omar) charts the dangerous paths Reem and Huda face with their backs against the wall.
Date: Monday, Sep 26, 2022 at 7:00 PM
RT: 91 mins
OPENING NIGHT
In this award-winning dramatic comedy, four sisters clash when they return home to Amman to search for their missing elderly father. The women struggle to get past their estrangement while confronting difficult family truths amid a patriarchal Arab society.
Date: Friday, Sep 23, 2022 at 7:00 PM
RT: 112 mins
This lighthearted family comedy follows a middle class Lebanese family who retreats to their dilapidated country house after a neighbor tests positive for Covid. While life without internet access—or even electricity—initially seems like disaster, this new life slowly leads to a rediscovery of their roots.
Date: Thursday, Sep 29, 2022 at 9:30PM
RT: 90 mins
In this Tunisian drama, twelve-year-old Gadha and his mother are taken in by a generous wealthy family after Gadha is injured in a car accident. After finding friendship and a fresh start, Gadha is shocked to discover the family’s deeply hidden secret.
Date: Saturday, Sep 24, 2022 at 3:00 PM
RT: 98 mins
2021 Online
In 2015, Rasha and Ma’moon, a young couple from Yemen’s port city of Aden, were supposed to get married. Then the war broke out, and their plans had to change. Now it’s 2018, and they’ve set a new date. With only 10 days to go before the wedding, new obstacles arise. Will their story have a happy ending, or will the aftermath of the war, economic crises, and other life circumstances keep them apart? This heartwarming romance provides a moving look at Adeni society, something we don’t get to see too often on screen.
Director: Amr Gamal
RT: 122 mins
Two months after the massive explosion that devastated Beirut, the inhabitants of the city are still reeling from the force of the blast and the accumulated evil they have been subjected to for decades. Carol Mansour explored her city in the aftermath of the blast, talking to friends and exchangingreflections on what has happened and its implications on them, in candid unscripted voice note messages. Feelings of helplessness, frustration and overwhelming anger at the political class, permeate this short film as we are taken on a tour of the destruction of homes, livelihoods and lives.
Director: Carol Mansour
RT:
In this “taut psychosocial drama” (Variety), a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman are caught together in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their extramarital affair is revealed, shattering the framework of lies on which their relationship is built and triggering a disastrous chain of events that forces them to deal with much more than their broken marriages. Understated yet riveting, the film features impressive, naturalistic performances.
The second feature from the Alayan brothers, it’s sharply written and impressively acted.
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem premiered at the 2018 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
Director: Muayad Alayan
RT:
Omar, a young baker, is accustomed to dodging surveillance bullets to visit his secret love, Nadia. But Occupied Palestine knows neither love nor clear-cut war and Omar is suddenly transformed into a freedom fighter.
Suspicion and betrayal jeopardise his long-term friendships and soon his loyalties are as torn as the Palestinian landscape in this award-winning thriller/romance.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
RT: 98 mins
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival, this stunning political thriller is based on a true story. Just weeks before the 2011 Egyptian revolution that would eventually oust President Hosni Mubarak, Noredin Mustafa, an ordinary police officer in Cairo's corrupt system, investigates the murder of a beautiful club singer at the Nile Hilton Hotel. When he realizes that what initially seems to be a crime of passion is something that cuts to the heart of the country’s untouchable power elite, he decides to break the rules in the name of justice, putting him on a crash course not only with the system but with himself as
well.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
Director: TARIK SALEH
RT: 106 mins
10-year-old Yachine lives with his family in the Sidi Moumen slum in Casablanca. His mother leads the family as best she can. His father suffers from depression, one of his brothers is in the army, another is almost autistic and the third, Hamid (13), is the neighbourhood boss and Yachine’s protector.
When Hamid is sent to jail, Yachine takes job after job, however hopeless, to try and lift himself up from the violence, misery and drugs that surround him. Released from prison, now an Islamic fundamentalist, Hamid persuades Yachine and his friends to join their “brothers”.
The Imam - their spiritual leader - starts to direct their arduous physical and mental preparation. One day, he tells them they have been chosen to become martyrs.
HORSES OF GOD was inspired by the terrorist attacks of May 16th, 2003 in Casablanca.
Director: Nabil Ayouch
RT: 113 mins
Winner of the Best First Feature award as well as the Silver Bear for Best Actor (for Majd Mastoura), this is both a touching, provocative portrait of male suffocation in traditional Muslim society and a universal tale of having to choose between love and duty. Hedi is a passive young man listlessly drifting through life while his overbearing mother organizes his marriage, his boss rules his schedule, and his brother dictates his behavior. And then he meets a free-spirited woman who lights a passion inside him, and he finally comes into his own. “Quiet but pungent and featuring vibrant performances, it offers further evidence that the rebirth of Tunisian cinema is underway,” says The Hollywood Reporter.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
Director: MOHAMED BEN ATTIA
RT: 88 mins
Three individual, intertwined stories, in which devout Beiruti Muslims try to manage their love, lives and desires without breaking any of their religion’s rules.
Awatef, the middle-aged mom of two girls, wants to recruit a second wife to help her satisfy her overly loving husband's desires.
The young and excessively jealous Mokhtar, needs to find his ex-wife another man in order to marry her again - after already having divorced her three times.
Loubna, freshly divorced, can finally marry her true love, but on a short-term contract only, since he has a family.
Director: Assad Fouladkar
Awards:
Sundance 2016, World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Rotterdam 2016
Dubai 2015, Arabian Nights
RT: 94 mins
After a chance encounter with an aged furniture maker in Algiers, director Safinez Bousbia discovered chaabi music, a vibrant, cross-pollinated form that flourished in the Casbah but is little known to most Westerners. Upon learning that the man had been part of a celebrated chaabi orchestra in the 50s, Bousbia set out to find as many of his old bandmates as she could in Algeria and France -- some of them nearing their 100th birthdays, most having been unable to make a living from music for decades. From Hollywood Reporter
Director: Safinez Bousbia
RT: 88 mins
Released in Egypt around the time of last year’s revolution, Mohamed Diab’s Cairo 678 is a powerful portrait of three women drawn from across Cairo’s complex social hierarchy that are brought together by sexual harrassment. Fayza, a traditionally-minded mother, is molested on a daily basis as she takes the bus to work; Seba, a wealthy jewelry designer, recovering from a vicious gang assault starts her own support group, and Nelly, an aspiring stand-up comic draws national outrage for daring to file a sexual harassment lawsuit. The film follows this trio as, frustrated by the lackadaisical response from authorities, they decide to take the law into their own hands and begin exacting violent revenge on men foolish enough to try and harass them.
Director: Mohamed Diab
RT:
Played at: New Directors New Films
Awards: Special Jury Prize Chicago Film Festival 2011
Best Actress and Best Actor Prizes, Dubai International Film Festival 2010
RT: 100 mins
Set over the course of a single night, in Algiers, a city, still reverberating from the “the black decade”, a couple, Amal and Samir are searching for a restaurant that would serve them alcohol to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary.
While the brutal civil war has ended, its after effects are everywhere. Roaming the city discussing the push and pull of whether to leave the country, with its broken dreams in order to provide a better future for their son, the aforementioned son, Fahim, is hanging with his friends, dulling their boredom with drugs and alcohol.
The Blessed premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Director: Sofia Djama
RT:
An anthology TV series “Beirut 6:07” is a not-for-profit production that pays tribute to the immense casualties of the Beirut port blast through a succession of 15 short stories inspired by true events and real people.
Narrating various incidents that happened both prior to and after the explosions, each episode of “Beirut 6:07” is approximately 7 minutes long, each made by a different director, all of whom worked pro bono on the project.
VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
For many, art is considered a form of catharsis, and every actor and crew member involved in this production have themselves been affected by the events of 4 August in some way. One actor involved XXX lost his own brother.
All voluntarily collaborated on the project, whilst all families of the actual victims have given their consent to adopt their story, some even participated in the development of the series.
Shot as standalone stories, each episode of “Beirut 6:07” will recount the story of a victim, survivor, or hero, through the eyes of a different director and cast.
IN THE WORDS OF THE FILMMAKERS
As outlined, 15 different directors are involved in the making of “Beirut 6:07”. Here’s more about their work in their own words.
Ingrid Bawab
“After one of the most traumatising experiences that I have lived in my life, the decision of being loud about what we went through was the mission of every Lebanese artist. We all used our skills to contribute to the conversation worldwide in the way we knew best. My way was to assemble a full team that worked day and night pro-bono to be able to tell our story and get the word out as a way to contribute to the large conversation happening worldwide about Beirut – and to contribute to keeping that conversation going.”
Mazen Fayad
“The world these days has become quick to forget when the news stops becoming a scoop. More so, the Lebanese people - due to their long history of suffering - are quick to forget and move on. What happens to these victims? To their families? Do they die in vain? We have a duty as filmmakers to keep their memory alive and remind everyone, that these people had lives, hopes and dreams that were stripped away from them through mere negligence. It could have been anyone. We honour our dead and hope to survive our grim future by taking a stand today. I am honoured to have partaken in this initiative. ‘Beirut 6:07’ is more than a production project, it is emotional and mental therapy.”
Karl Hadife
“I am both honoured and thankful to be working on the project. I helped as much as I could after the blast, but I felt like what I was doing was not enough. Construction is not my field of expertise. Being part of this project allowed me to contribute in a way that is way more personal and to offer my help using my language of choice, which is cinema.”
Caroline Labaki
“I am honoured and proud to be part of ‘Beirut 6:07’, paying tribute to the victims of the devastating Beirut blast. As a filmmaker it was my way of giving back to the city that I love and cherish. I hope we have honoured it and its fallen heroes well.”
Emile Slailaty
"After the port blast, I felt extremely frustrated. I wanted to help in any way in the reconstruction of Beirut, so I took a broom and started cleaning houses and streets… But I wanted to help through my camera, but didn't know how. Surprisingly, at the right time came ‘Beirut 6:07’. The overall vibe and great intentions around the project have been helpful and healthy. The enthusiasm of the producers, directors and technical crew and their passion for Beirut was very contagious and we all just had one thing in mind: honouring the Lebanese capital and the heroes who rose after this blast. Their strong stories took the experience to another level, one that is intense humanly rich. I’m so thankful for this opportunity because it was the self-therapy I was searching for.”
Wassim Succar
“Following the explosion that hit Beirut, it became obvious to me that we, as a country, have reached our rock bottom. Some people hurried to ground zero to help, others took to the streets in revolt. Our collective anger and frustration kept on boiling and surfacing, manifesting differently in each one of us. For me, it was a breaking point, I felt crushed and helpless. Something had to be done, something needed to change. And so I went through the journey of doing what I do best.
“I have always believed in the power of cinema and storytelling, and now was the right time to use this power to convey the impact of the explosion to each viewer, hoping to awaken us from our deep oblivion.”
Sandrine Zaynoun
“Like many people, I experienced the explosion of 4 August; I lost my home, I almost lost my sister, and a lot of my friends were wounded and hurt. Two months on, and the investigation isn’t going anywhere. Evidence has been burnt, some people are still missing, and everyone around us seems to have already forgotten and are moving on with their lives. I chose to work on this project to remind everyone that the victims have stories and names, loved ones and homes, dreams and hopes and they should not be forgotten. The pain is real and very present, and it should remain in the headlines until we get to the truth.”
Directors
RT:
2019
In 2015, Rasha and Ma’moon, a young couple from Yemen’s port city of Aden, were supposed to get married. Then the war broke out, and their plans had to change. Now it’s 2018, and they’ve set a new date. With only 10 days to go before the wedding, new obstacles arise. Will their story have a happy ending, or will the aftermath of the war, economic crises, and other life circumstances keep them apart? This heartwarming romance provides a moving look at Adeni society, something we don’t get to see too often on screen.
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Saturday, September 21 - 4:50PM
BAM Screening: Tuesday, October 1st - 9:30PM
RT: 122 mins
The first Sudanese film in this series! In this quirky comedy, Adnan, a Sudanese rebel and war hero is in love: His passion for his AK-47 is equaled only by that for his long-suffering girlfriend, Lina. When he’s late reporting back to his military unit after a leave, his commander launches a kasha — a round-up and arrest of all truant soldiers--spurring Adnan and his unlikely pacifist friend, Absi, to make a run for it on a wry and humorous 24-hour wild-goose chase that reveals life and ideology in rebel-held areas of Sudan. One reviewer says it may be “the first Sudanese stoner comedy ever.”
Director: Hajooj Kuka
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Sunday, September 22 - 7:45PM
BAM Screening: Saturday, September 28 - 4:30PM
RT: 78 mins
BAM screening will be followed by Q&A with special guests
Capernaum tells the story of clever, gutsy 12-year-old Zain, who is forced to fend for himself on the streets of Beirut. After enduring abuse, negligence, and a series of tragedies, he takes his parents to court, suing them for the “crime” of giving him life. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Where Do We Go Now?), this impressive Oscar-nominated drama burns with emotional intensity, surprises with unexpected tenderness, and inspires with poetic imagery.
Director: Nadine Labaki
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Monday, September 23 - 7:30PM
BAM Screening: Monday, September 30 - 7PM
RT: 120 mins
Moe, an aspiring director, is in the midst of an existential crisis. His film is under-financed, his friends are being arrested, and his dream projects are proving to be impossible to pull off. A wild overnight taxi ride through Cairo (reminiscent of the scene in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours) with the plainspoken prostitute Toutou and driver Mostafa, opens his eyes to a different side of the city and gives him a new perspective. This atmospheric, wry comedy with terrific performances packs a punch.
Director: Ahmad Abdalla
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Saturday, September 21 - 7:35PM
BAM Screening: Wednesday, October 2 - 7PM
RT: 95 mins
Burns Center screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director in attendance
This intense drama focuses on Brahim Nadhour, a Tunisian who has been living in France for several years and returns to his home country to bury his son, Marouane, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Devastated by the death and shocked to see how things have changed since the Arab Spring, Brahim discovers that Marouane was active in a radical Islamist group and a fatwa has been declared on his own ex-wife, Loubna. The film explores the complex process of radicalization in a society and its profound effects on individuals and families.
Fatwa is co-produced by the Dardenne brothers
Director: Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Thursday, September 19 - 5:00PM
BAM Screening: Saturday September 28 - 9:30PM
RT: 102 mins
For Sama is the story of filmmaker Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years in Aleppo, Syria, as she falls in love, gets married, and gives birth to Sama, amid rising cataclysmic conflict. Waad’s camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter, and survival as she wrestles with an impossible decision: Should she flee the city to protect her daughter’s life or stay to continue the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much? This rare firsthand account of war from a woman’s perspective won the Best Documentary prizes at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and at the SXSW Film Festival, and the Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary at the Hot Docs Festival.
The film is the first feature documentary by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts.
Directors: Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Friday, September 20 - 7:35PM
BAM Screening: Saturday, September 28 - 7PM
RT: 95 mins
Syrian-born filmmaker Talal Derki (Return to Homs) travels to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses primarily on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic caliphate. The two boys Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) love, admire, and obey their father, but while Osama seems content to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. Of Fathers and Sons is a work of unparalleled access that captures the chilling moment when childhood dies and jihadism is born. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
Director: Talal Derki
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Sunday, September 22 - 5:00PM
BAM Screening: Tuesday, October 1 - 7PM
RT: 99 mins
After a freak accident causes a wealthy Emirati executive and an Egyptian fast-food deliveryman to switch bodies, the two struggle to revert to their former selves, and they gain perspective into each other’s lives along the way.
Filmmaker Mohammed Saeed Harib is well known in the UAE for his smart and pointed animated series Freej, which chronicles the lives of four women in Dubai.
Rashid & Rajab, a slapstick comedy, is his live-action feature film debut.
Director: Mohammed Saeed Harib
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Thursday September 19 - 7:30PM
BAM Screening: Sunday, September 29 - 4:15PM
RT: 105 mins
Burns screening will be followed by Q&A with Director in attendance
In this comedic take on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Salam, an inexperienced and charming young Palestinian man, is interning on a popular soap opera produced in Ramallah. After “getting to know” an Israeli soldier and using his insights, he finds that his creative career is on the rise — but then, the soldier and the show’s financial backers disagree about how it should end, and Salam is caught in the middle. This enjoyable drama is a “witty and warm-hearted look at a divided land” (Hollywood Reporter).
Director: Sameh Zoabi
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Wednesday, September 25 - 7:35PM
BAM Screening: Friday, September 27 - 7:00PM
RT: 100 mins
Screening followed by Q&A with Director at both screenings
In this “low-budget but high-impact documentary” (Holllywood Reporter), Lebanese filmmaker Cyril Aris chronicles an upsetting story from his own family. After sixty years of marriage, Antoine and Vivi have lost their most beloved daughter, overseas; but no one has dared to tell the bedridden nonagenarian Antoine, lest his heart give out. A simple solution, though everyone else in this densely interconnected family has then to live the same lie, giving no expression to their grief. An intimate and moving meditation on truth, love, and lies in the face of illness and death.
Director: Cyril Aris
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Monday, September 23 - 5PM
BAM Screening: Sunday, September 29 - 2PM
RT: 74 mins
Burns Film Center screening will be followed by a Skype Q&A with the Director
BAM screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director in attendance
Writer/director/journalist Jawad Rhalib has created a stirring testament to the power of art especially as it exists in the Muslim world. Starting with his feelings about his mother’s belly dancing, full of female sensuality, he explores the effects of the fundamentalist Islam view on the arts in general, labeling them sinful. Interweaving rehearsals, conversations, performances, and archival footage, the documentary investigation explores Muslim identity, harmful stereotypes, and the rich and beautiful tradition of dance and music found across the Arab world.
Director: Jawad Rhalib
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Friday, September 20 - 5:15PM
BAM Screening: Saturday, September 28 - 2PM
RT: 90 mins
Yomeddine’s main character, Beshay, has lived in an Egyptian leper colony since childhood and now—cured of the disease and recently widowed—he heads off in search of his roots. With his meager possessions strapped to a donkey cart and a Nubian orphan for company, he encounters the world with all its sorrows, hardships, and moments of grace. This charming road movie, which was a prizewinner at Cannes and Egypt’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, culminates in friendship and a moving acceptance of the infinite variety of human appearances.
Director: A.B. Shawky
Jacob Burns Film Center Screening: Wednesday, September 18 - 7PM w/reception
BAM Screening: Sunday, September 29 - 7PM
RT: 97 mins
Burns screening will be followed by Q&A with Director via Skype
2018
When Mariam, a young Tunisian woman, is raped after leaving a party, she is propelled into a harrowing night in which she must fight for her rights. Masterfully directed in 9 x 10 minute takes, and anchored by a tour-de-force performance from newcomer Mariam Al Ferjani, Beauty and the Dogs tells an urgent, unapologetic, torn from the headlines story of a repressive society, and acts as a forceful feminist rallying cry, even more relevant during our #metoo days.
It screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Saturday 9/22/2018 5:00 PM - 6:40 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Saturday 9/29/2018 8:30 PM - 10:10 PM
New York première
The matriarch of a sprawling Lebanese family, is delighted to gather everyone for Easter lunch for the first time in two years. As with many family get-togethers, what starts out as a joyful meal, gradually reveals buried resentments, deep hidden secrets, and is threatened by derailment when money goes missing and accusations start to fly. The realistic setting and hand-held camera moves are reminiscent of the Dogme 95 movement’s, The Celebration, and belies Bourjeily’s theater background.
The film premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2017, where it took home the Special Jury Prize.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Sunday 9/23/2018 6:00 PM - 7:31 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Wednesday 10/3/2018 7:00 PM - 8:31 PM
North American première
Many would go to great lengths to obtain an American visa. Some enter lotteries, others get married. In this bold and entertaining satire, an Egyptian couple come up with what they believe to be ‘the perfect plan’: give birth at the American Embassy. Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong from the get go. With the current controversies over US immigration and refugees in Europe, this film feels very ‘of the moment’.
Induced Labor premiered at the 2017 edition of the Dubai International Film Festival.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Thursday 9/27/2018 5:00 PM- 6:30 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Sunday 9/30/2018 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Shot in stark black and white, and under the guise of a documentary, an Algerian woman journalist crisscrosses the land asking people on the street, academics and religious leaders, in cities, towns and villages to respond to the concept of the 72 willing virgins awaiting an Islamic martyr the minute he enters paradise. '‘A long but absorbing watch, it is both chilling in its implications and heartening in presenting intelligent Algerians who see clearly through the propaganda,'‘ says the Hollywood Reporter.
Investigating Paradise premiered at the Panorama Documentary section of the Berlin Film Festival in 2017.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Monday 9/24/2018 7:00 PM - 9:15 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Tuesday 10/2/2018 7:00 PM - 9:15 PM
Spurred on by old photos the director saw of his parents dancing on the beaches of Alexandria, Egypt, in the 60s and 70s, and reflecting on present day Alexandria, the director found himself, asking his parents’ friends about the band “Les Petits Chats”. The glow in their eyes told him all he needed to know.
The hugely popular cover band, attracted crowds of crazed fans when they toured. When the band eventually broke up, they all went on to enjoy individual celebrity status. After three decades, they briefly reunited—and filmmaker Sherif Nakhla was there to capture all the musical, nostalgic bliss.
The film also provides a great portrait of Cairo’s “golden age,” a thrilling time of café society, a sophisticated art scene, and booming business.
Les Petits Chats premiered at the Arabian Sights Film Festival in Washington, DC.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Friday 9/21/2018 7:45 PM - 9:05 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Saturday 9/29/2018 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM
This is a kind of Lebanese Romeo and Juliet story with a twist. Joud, a passionate sound engineer, falls for wealthy, extroverted Rana. After an accident, the two—from completely different social and religious backgrounds—are separated by her parents, who soon close ranks and forbid any contact, leaving Joud to find new ways to communicate with her.
Set in contemporary Beirut, Listen is a surprisingly sensual film that moves away from filmmaker Philippe Aractingi’s previous focus on war-related themes to take on issues such as family rivalries, the weight of traditions, and the changing role of women.
In Lebanon where the cacophony of life is deafening, and in an era where no one listens, a film that elevates listening to a form of survival and love, is to be celebrated.
Listen premiered at the 2016 edition of the Dubai International Film Festival.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Thursday 9/27/2018 7:15 PM - 9:04 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Sunday 9/30/2018 3:00 PM - 4:49 PM
New York première
Set over the course of a single night, in Algiers, a city, still reverberating from the “the black decade”, a couple, Amal and Samir are searching for a restaurant that would serve them alcohol to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary.
While the brutal civil war has ended, its after effects are everywhere. Roaming the city discussing the push and pull of whether to leave the country, with its broken dreams in order to provide a better future for their son, the aforementioned son, Fahim, is hanging with his friends, dulling their boredom with drugs and alcohol.
The Blessed premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Friday 9/21/2018 5:00 PM - 6:42 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Thursday 10/4/2018 7:00 PM - 8:42 PM
New York Première
Part poetic, thoughtful profile and part bite-your-nails thriller, The Journey focuses on Sara, who is on the cusp of committing an unthinkable act—to “purify” the busy Baghdad train station from American influence with a bomb—when she runs into a smooth-talking salesman.
We watch on the edge of our seats as the two interact with a diverse swath of humanity amid the hubbub. This compelling film, set in 2006, when nervous U.S. troops still occupy the city, “is surprisingly old-fashioned, in a good way: Reminiscent not just of Italian neorealism but classic plays by the likes of Saroyan and Wilder, in which small interactions between characters affirm the value of life with all its sorrows and bittersweet joys” (Variety).
The Journey premiered at the Toronto International Film festival in 2017.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Tuesday 9/25/2018 7:00 PM - 8:22 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Sunday 9/30/2018 7:45 PM - 9:07 PM
North American première
Hedi Jouini, who died in 1990, was the most popular musical star in Tunisian history, known as the “Frank Sinatra of Tunisia”. His songs continue to inspire revolutionaries and conservatives alike. But why did he keep his fame hidden from his granddaughter? What dark secrets did he withhold from the nation that worshiped him?
In this poignant documentary, Jouini’s granddaughter looks for answers. The Man Behind the Microphone reveals the incredible story behind a man and his music and offers fascinating insights into Tunisia’s cultural evolution, building a profound portrait of the godfather of Tunisian music, father to a nation yet not to his family.
The Man Behind the Microphone premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2017
Jacob Burns Film Center: Saturday 9/22/2018 7:30 PM - 8:56 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Wednesday 10/3/2018 9:15 PM - 10:41 PM
New York Première
In this “taut psychosocial drama” (Variety), a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman are caught together in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their extramarital affair is revealed, shattering the framework of lies on which their relationship is built and triggering a disastrous chain of events that forces them to deal with much more than their broken marriages. Understated yet riveting, the film features impressive, naturalistic performances.
The second feature from the Alayan brothers, it’s sharply written and impressively acted.
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem premiered at the 2018 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
Jacob Burns Film Center: Sunday 9/23/2018 2:30 PM - 4:37 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Saturday 9/29/2018 5:15 PM - 7:22 PM
Local Palestinian custom dictates that a bride’s male relatives must hand-deliver her wedding invitations, and so a father and his estranged son (played by an actual father and son) come together, get in the car, and do their duty.
Shot in the biblical city of Nazareth, this whip-smart family comedy-drama represents the third time filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s work was chosen as Palestine’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. “An intimate, well-played disquisition on what it means to be a Palestinian abroad versus a Palestinian at home” (Variety).
Since its premier at Toronto International Film festival in 2017, Wajib has brought home more than a dozen awards at film festivals from Dubai to London to Locarno.
Jacob Burns Film Center: Thursday 9/20/2018 7:00 PM - 8:36 PM
Wajib will not be playing at BAM as part of this year’s ANA
New York première
A shepherd named Zagros is stunned to learn that his family has accused his pregnant wife of infidelity and that she is leaving their simple life in Kurdistan and taking their daughter to live in Brussels. Convinced of her innocence, Zagros leaves his family behind to join them. But starting a new life in a strange city is filled with challenges. Caught between tradition and modernity, he’s baffled and outraged by the contrasts in lifestyles and by his wife’s behavior. When his dad follows him to Belgium his doubts resurface with tragic consequences.
Zagros premiered at the 2017 Dubai International Film Festival
Jacob Burns Film Center: Wednesday 9/26/2018 7:00 PM - 8:42 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): Monday 10/1/2018 7:00 PM - 8:42 PM
2017
US PREMIERE
A wry, incisive look at the Egyptian bourgeoisie, this enjoyable drama follows the people on holiday at a beach resort near Alexandria in the off-season. Among the crowd are the lecherous Dr. Yehia and his overlooked wife, Magda, along with an attractive (and needy) recently divorced mother and her secret lover—and they’re not exactly having the vacation they’d planned. As Magda points out, “Nobody comes here at this time of year unless they’re hiding from something or looking for someone.”
Before the Summer Crowds is Mohamed Khan's last film. He passed away on July 26, 2016.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2015. 90 m. NR. Egypt. Arabic with subtitles
Monday, September 25 at 5:00 PM
WESTCHESTER PREMIERE
“After watching Maysaloun Hamoud’s sparkling, taboo-breaking first feature In Between, audiences will have to seriously update their ideas about the lifestyle of Palestinian women in Israel,” says The Hollywood Reporter. This engaging, controversial film—about what happens when a veiled Muslim woman moves into a Tel Aviv apartment with a couple of partying Arab-Israelis—has won enthusiastic reviews and multiple awards on the festival circuit. Feminists especially applaud its depiction of these young people torn between tradition and personal freedom. But it’s also made headlines because of the reaction the Palestinian director received from her homeland—including the first Palestinian fatwa in almost 70 years.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2016. 96 m. NR. Palestine/Israel/France. Arabic/Hebrew with subtitles.
Saturday, September 23 at 4:30 PM
SKYPE WITH DIRECTOR
Police in Tahrir Square arrest and lock up a group of Muslim Brotherhood government supporters along with anti-regime demonstrators. This hard-hitting drama from Mohamed Diab (Cairo 678 - ANA 2012) is filmed entirely inside the paddy wagon where the opposing protestors are confined in all-too-close proximity. It’s “a rather amazing New Wave–style drama that combines claustrophobic intimacy with some logistically epic scene-setting” (Guardian)—a stunning, bravura piece of filmmaking.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2016. 97 m. NR. Egypt. Arabic with subtitles
Tuesday, September 26 at 7:30 PM
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - SKYPE WITH DIRECTOR
Reko and Pero, a young Yazidi couple, are preparing for their wedding when ISIS fighters attack their village, capturing Pero, along with other women and girls. As they are sold as slaves and subjected to the most horrifying abuses, Reko holds onto hope that he will find his fiancée and that they can be together again. Can their love endure the unthinkable? This powerful drama, winner of the Best Film prize at several festivals, is the first narrative feature to deal with the genocide of the Yazidi people, the much-persecuted ethnic and religious minority from the Shingal region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Chilling and potent, The Dark Wind is not to be missed.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2016. 92 m. NR. Iraq/Germany/Syria/Qatar. Kurdish with subtitles.
Monday, September 25 at 7:30 PM
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Director Raed Andoni places an ad in a Ramallah newspaper, looking for former inmates of West Jerusalem's notorious interrogation and detention center, Moskobiya. After gathering the applicants, he arranges for a replica of the facility’s interrogation rooms and cells to be built to scale and in this realistic setting the men reenact their experience as prisoners. This exploration of unresolved trauma and its effects is a tough and challenging experience for everyone involved—one that’s raised its share of controversy, even as the film has won the Original Documentary award at the Berlinale.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2017. 94 m. NR. Palestine/Qatar. Arabic with subtitles.
Wednesday, September 27 at 5:00 PM
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Winner of the Best First Feature award as well as the Silver Bear for Best Actor (for Majd Mastoura), this is both a touching, provocative portrait of male suffocation in traditional Muslim society and a universal tale of having to choose between love and duty. Hedi is a passive young man listlessly drifting through life while his overbearing mother organizes his marriage, his boss rules his schedule, and his brother dictates his behavior. And then he meets a free-spirited woman who lights a passion inside him, and he finally comes into his own. “Quiet but pungent and featuring vibrant performances, it offers further evidence that the rebirth of Tunisian cinema is underway,” says The Hollywood Reporter.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2016. 88 m. NR. Tunisia/Belgium/France. Arabic with subtitles
Thursday, September 28 at 8:00 PM
SKYPE WITH DIRECTOR
Winner of the Grand Jury Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work – a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage – follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization comprised of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives. Incorporating moments of both heart-pounding suspense and improbable beauty, the documentary draws us into the lives of three of its founders – Khaled, Subhi, and Mahmoud – as they grapple with the chaos around them and struggle with an ever-present dilemma: do they flee or stay and fight for their country.
Source: Press Kit
2017. 110 m. NR. Syria/Denmark. Arabic with subtitles
Thursday, September 28 at 5:00 PM
NY PREMIERE - DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE
In this political thriller, a moderate, charismatic Muslim television preacher in a largely conservative society, enjoys a lavish lifestyle buoyed by
the devotion of millions of followers who rely on him for hope and encouragement. But since his message deviates from traditional religious rhetoric, it focuses unwanted attention on him and his family. Before long, he is trapped in a complex web of conflict, his personal life unravels,
and he tries to find a way to make a dent in the climate of hypocrisy and fear. Deeply moving, and with welcome doses of humor, The Preacher boldly addresses the way politics manipulates religion for its own ends in the Arab world—and beyond.
2016. 130 m. NR. Egypt. Arabic with subtitles.
SKYPE WITH DIRECTOR
Therese, the mayor’s wife in a Lebanese village, joyfully prepares for an overnight visit of her daughter's suitor and his parents. She excitedly shares the happy news of the engagement with pictures of her beloved brother who was killed by a Syrian bomb 20 years ago and is still bizarrely present in every corner of her house.
Only when the long-awaited guests are at her doorstep, she discovers they are Syrian; this engagement will only happen over Therese’s dead body!
2016. 92 m. Lebanon | Jordan | Egypt. Arabic with subtitles
OPENING NIGHT- NY PREMIERE - FOLLOWED BY A RECEPTION
The Insult is a modern-day fable about dignity and justice in Lebanon, in which a trivial disagreement between a Palestinian construction worker
and his Christian neighbor leads to a taut courtroom drama that practically escalates into civil war. Doueiri, who started his career working as first camera assistant on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown, uses his experience along with his intimate
understanding of Lebanese society to probe under the façade of post–civil war “normality.”
2017. 113 m. France/Lebanon/Cyprus/Belgium. Arabic with subtitles.
Opening Night: Friday, September 22 at 7:30 PM - FOLLOWED BY RECEPTION
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival, this stunning political thriller is based on a true story. Just weeks before the 2011 Egyptian revolution that would eventually oust President Hosni Mubarak, Noredin Mustafa, an ordinary police officer in Cairo's corrupt system, investigates the murder of a beautiful club singer at the Nile Hilton Hotel. When he realizes that what initially seems to be a crime of passion is something that cuts to the heart of the country’s untouchable power elite, he decides to break the rules in the name of justice, putting him on a crash course not only with the system but with himself as
well.
Source: Jacob Burns Film Center
2017. 106 m. NR. Egypt/Sweden/Denmark/Germany. Arabic with subtitles
US PREMIERE
Rabih is a blind musician from a small Lebanese village whose band is about to embark on an international trip. He needs a passport. But going to the passport office to perform the mundane task of submitting paperwork proves to be the beginning of a trip of a whole other kind. First, the officials tell him his ID is fake, and then they send him off to find his birth certificate. This document proves elusive, so Rabih gets a blood test—and it’s soon revealed that he has lived his whole life in a web of misinformation, as each question he asks reveals a new layer of family deceit and willful amnesia.
2015. 105 m. NR. Lebanon. Arabic with subtitles.
2016
3000 Nights is veteran Palestinian documentary filmmaker Mai Masri's first feature.
Thrown into prison for mistakenly being accused of aiding and abetting in a terrorist attack, newly married Leyla finds herself pregnant and facing a long prison sentence.
In spite of the dire conditions the women fight to preserve their dignity and self-respect in the face of abuse by the system.
Based on extensive interviews with former prisoners, this film is a metaphor of life under occupation, and the indomitability of the human spirit.
Director: Mai Masri
Awards:
Circle Jury Award, Washington DC International Film Festival, USA 2016
Jury Award at theWIFTS (Women 's International Film & Television Showcase), Los Angeles, USA - 2015
Audience Award, Valladolid International Film Festival, Spain - 2015
Audience Award, Annonay International Film Festival, France - 2016
Young Jury Award, International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland - 2016
TaoEdu Youth Award, Taormina International Film Festival, Italy 2016
Best Screenplay, Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia 2011
RT: 103 mins
Reviews:
"It’s emotive material, handled with a blunt but largely unsensational approach." ScreenDaily
Summer 2010. Tunis. It is a few months before the revolution and 18-year-old Farah has just graduated from High School. Her family has charted out her future as a doctor, but she won't have any of that. She is a political rock singer who embraces alcohol, love and her city by night – all against the approval of her mother, who knows Tunisia and its dangers far better than Farah. (DIFF)
Director: Leyla Bouzid
Awards:
- Carthage Film Festival 2015: FIPRESCI Prize + TV5 Award
- DIFF 2015: Muhr Award for Best Fiction Movie
- Venice Film Festival 2015: Label Europa Cinemas Award
- East End Film Festival, UK 2016: Best Film Award
RT: 102 mins
Reviews:
"The Best Fictional Film Yet About the Arab Spring" - Indiewire
On a hot summer's day in Gaza, Christine’s beauty salon is buzzing with clients: a bride-to-be, a pregnant lady, a bitter divorcée, a devout woman and a pill-popping addict. Gunfire erupts outside, as a bunch of thugs steal the lioness from Gaza’s only zoo, and Hamas seizes the opportunity to settle old scores. Stuck in the salon, fearing for their lives, the women start to unravel - their helplessness a reflection of an ongoing struggle in a region that has forgotten about them.
Director: Tarazan and Arab Nasser
RT: 83 mins
Reviews:
Let The Movie Move Us: "Dégradé is a very imaginative movie set in one room..."
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An endearing bromance drama between two actual Kurdish brothers who happen to be little people. One brother, Alan refuses to believe his height is an issue, not even when his proposal of marriage to a woman of regular height is rejected by her father, a staunch Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo fan.
To prove his worthiness, Alan sets out on an epic journey across Iraq with his brother Shirwan to bring Ronaldo a handmade pair of shoes.
Director: Halkawt Mustafa
RT: 97 mins
Reviews:
The Hollywood News: "When love and football collide, the result is an adventure of epic proportions"
Three individual, intertwined stories, in which devout Beiruti Muslims try to manage their love, lives and desires without breaking any of their religion’s rules.
Awatef, the middle-aged mom of two girls, wants to recruit a second wife to help her satisfy her overly loving husband's desires.
The young and excessively jealous Mokhtar, needs to find his ex-wife another man in order to marry her again - after already having divorced her three times.
Loubna, freshly divorced, can finally marry her true love, but on a short-term contract only, since he has a family.
Director: Assad Fouladkar
Awards:
- Sundance 2016, World Cinema Dramatic Competition
- Rotterdam 2016
- Dubai 2015, Arabian Nights
RT: 94 mins
Reviews:
Variety: "A brightly assembled, pleasantly diverting farce from Lebanon-born, Egypt-based helmer-writer Assad Fouladkar."
ScreenDaily: "Assad Fouladkar has made a light, joyful film about love and its many, messy forms..."
Be the first in this hemisphere to see the Emirati-produced television legal drama!
We’re amazingly lucky be able to show three episodes of this ground-breaking experiment, which takes on both criminal and Islamic law.
Trust us, you don’t want to miss it.
Costa Gavras protégé, and first-time feature filmmaker, Salem Brahimi, brilliantly adapts Arezki Mellal’s novel about what's known as the "years of terrorism" in late 1980s Algeria.
The film centers around Nourredine who is coerced into marriage by his dying mother. Struggling with married life, malaise on the homefront while around him militant Islamist seek revenge against civilians in retaliation to the army's crackdown on them.
Director: Salem Brahimi
Awards:
- New Directors Award at Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival 2016 (Norway)
RT: 95 mins
Reviews:
Variety: "...an effectively intimate drama set within sweeping larger events, focusing on a secular family swimming against a riding tide of Islamic fundamentalism."
Nabil Ayouch's sixth feature, an honest, poignant portrayel of four upmarket sex workers in Marakesh, has lead to death threats for both him and his leading actress, and gotten the film banned in Morocco, where prostitution is illegal yet constitutes a thriving industry.
Derived from testimonies collected from 200 women, "Much Loved" is about the family you create, and the dangerous line you tread when living on the edges of society.
Director: Nabil Ayouch
Awards:
- Best Actress at the 2015 Gijón International Film Festival
- Best French-Language Foreign Film (Meilleur film francophone hors de France) at the 2016 Lumière Festival (France)
RT: 104 mins
Reviews:
Indiewire: "Moroccan Director Nabil Ayouch's Cannes-Selected Prostitution Drama - 'Much Loved' - Banned in His Home Country"
Variety: "As usual with such things, the storm will overshadow the movie, which pushes the envelope..."
Nawara, a woman in her 20s, works as a housemaid in the home of Ossama Bey and his family, who are closely linked to the Mubarak regime.
As the revolution unfolds, the family decide to leave the country temporarily. They give Nawara some money and ask her to look after the house while they're away. Nawara takes to living in her employer's villa, and at her fiance's insistence, lets him spend the night with her. Complications ensue as the pair are caught up in a travel ban and property seizure order that has been issued against the property's owner.
Nawara is a sharp social critique on the rich/poor divide in Egypt, and a biting commentary on the Arab Spring.
Director: Hala Khalil
Awards:
- Best Actress at the 2015 Dubai International Film Festival
RT: 111 mins
Reviews:
ScreenDaily: "Director Hala Khalil has a lot to say about Egypt post-Tahrir Square and 122 minutes is hardly enough to fit it all into the absorbing feature Nawara."
From multi-award winning director Hany Abu-Assad, a 'feel good' movie from Palestine. Idol is based on the true story of Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian from Gaza, who grew up to become the winner of the 2013 version of "Arab Idol", and the irresistible symbol of hope for Palestinians worldwide.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Awards: Golden Orange Award for Best Director (International)
RT: 95 mins
Reviews:
NPR: "The Idol isn't as complex asParadise Now, Abu-Assad's 2005 masterpiece, but neither is it a propaganda piece about noble Gazans and their unseen oppressors."
Variety: "A simply told but thoroughly captivating portrait..."
Three brothers, owners of a pizza parlor, run a smooth drug operation. All is going well until one is released from prison and decides to go legit. Their dealer coerces them into a last drug run, and they decide that making a film to hide their smuggling operation is the way to go.
This brash dark comedy by a new Lebanese talent is a tour-de-force of filmmaking, not to be missed.
Director: Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya
RT: 107 mins
Reviews:
Variety: "An all-too-real fake movie fronts a drug-smuggling plot in this smile-inducing Lebanese comedy."
Neo-noir Emirati feature Zinzana (Rattle the Cage) was handpicked from the infamous American screenplay "Black List". Set entirely in a claustrophobic prison, Majid Al Ansari's first feature Zinzana stars two of Palestine's most thrilling actors as a prisoner and his guard, who try to outwit each other in a high stakes cat and mouse battle to the end.
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Award:
- Nominated Best Film at DIFF 2015
RT: 96 mins
Reviews:
Gulf News: "Zinzana, the first feature film by Emirati director Majid Al Ansari, is a visual masterpiece."
Variety: "A world-class neo-noir thriller from the United Arab Emirates that should travel far on the global fest circuit and multiple international platforms."
2015
For most of us, our identity is taken for granted - who we are, where we come from, and what we are is rarely questioned. Not for the Palestinians, who are constantly required to show proof of identity, while their existence as native inhabitants of a land which no longer exists is perpetually denied or challenged. A World Not Ours is an intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family. Filmed over more than 20 years by multiple generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than just a family portrait; it is an attempt to record what is being forgotten, and mark what should not be erased from collective memory.
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Awards: Best Documentary at the Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) 2014
Film Showing: Friday September 11, 2015 at 5:00 PM
RT: 93 mins
Articles:
http://www.arabculturefund.org/bulletin/article.php?genre=3&id=242#.VWo2FFyrRE4
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/09/tint-s26.html
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/a-world-not-ours#
PBS (POV) interview with director
http://www.pbs.org/pov/aworldnotours/video-interview-mahdi-fleifel.php#.VWo3a1yrRE4
NEW YORK PREMIERE
In this family comedy, 12-year-old Hany, a precocious kid, tries to fit in at his new governmental school after his father suddenly drops dead, leaving his mother in debt and unable to continue to afford his private education. Not only is Hany clearly from a more privileged background than the working class boys in his new class, but he is also the only Christian in a room full of Muslims.
Director: Amr Salama
Film showing: Sunday September 13, 2015 at 3 PM.
RT: 99 mins
NEW YORK PREMIERE
The year is 2011 and Omar finds himself still racked with guilt over the death of his best friend Hady, who passed away five years ago. Now, just days away from the birth of his first child, he decides to take the road trip they never got to take...much to the dismay of his very pregnant wife.
Omar reaches out to his estranged high school friends Jay and Ramy who have lost touch since Hady’s death to take the road trip in his memory.
Jay, now a playboy/ wannabe DJ, and Ramy, an activist, take some convincing, but finally agree to the trip. The boys decide to drive from Abu Dhabi – via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria to arrive in Beirut, on what would have been Hady’s 25th birthday.
Their journey is filled with speedbumps - breakdowns, wrong turns, shady mechanics and a camel or two. If all of this doesn’t drive them crazy, it might just bring them closer.
Director: Ali F. Mostafa
Film showing: Saturday September 12, 2015 at 5:00 PM
RT: 108 mins
NEW YORK PREMIERE
In a charming, small neighborhood of a traditional Lebanese coastal town, Leba, a music instructor, marries his childhood sweetheart Lara.
Their perfect life is hits a snag, when much to the dismay of his family, neighbors, and friends, he has a first baby girl and then a second one. Lara is pregnant for the third time and yes, it’s a BOY!
However, medical tests show that the boy will have special needs. Will Leba and Lara keep the baby? Will little Ghadi become a burden on the family; or its pride and joy? Expect strange phenomena to affect the behavior and beliefs of that little town’s population. (website)
Director: Amin Dora
Film showing: Thursday September 15, 2015 at 8 PM
RT: 99 mins
Articles on Ghadi:
http://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/busan-film-review-ghadi-1201320448/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/ghadi-busan-review-738183
US PREMIERE
I am Nojoom is an adaptation of the international bestseller about 10-year old Nujood, who made international headlines in 2009 when she protested against her arranged marriage.
In the film, 10 year-old Nojoom is forced to marry a 30-year-old man. The dowry offered the family a small income and 'one less mouth to feed'. Her husband is indifferent to her age. Every day after she is wedded, Nojoom works under harsh conditions and every night, she is raped. A legitimate and acceptable arrangement for all, except for Nojoom.
Nujood became the figurehead of the fight against child brides in Yemen. According to figures of the UN and the Yemeni government, some 50% of Yemeni girls are married before they are 18, while 15% are married before the age of 15.
Director: Khadija Al-Salami
Awards: Best fiction film in the Muhr Feature competition at the 2014 Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF)
Film Showing: September 11, 2015 at 8 PM
RT: 96 mins
Read more:
http://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/film-review-i-am-nojoom-age-10-and-divorced-1201404143/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/i-am-nojoom-age-10-757471
SPECIAL US PREVIEW SCREENING
On Morocco’s old pirate coast, in the city of Salé, hundreds of teenagers audition every year to become students at the Cirque Shems’y, Morocco’s first professional circus. The circus school sits on the edge of the city’s slums, and represents the one hope for a different future for many of its students. Pirates of Salé follows four young Moroccans on a tough journey of transformation as they learn to live independently, express themselves, challenge convention, and embrace a totally alien concept: artistic freedom. (Jacob Burns Film Center)
Directors: Merieme Addou and Rosa Rogers
Film Showing: Monday, September 14, 2015 at 5:30 PM
RT: 78 mins
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Yasmina, Taleen, Layan and Zina are four successful ladies approaching their 40s. They are smart, funny, interesting, yet, the four of them are still single! They meet every Sunday at the Sporting Club in Beirut to catch up on their love lives or lack thereof.
Yasmina, a make-up artist for the stars, travels all over the Middle East. She's been dating a guy for a year, until, one day, she finds out that he is married and has a family.
Taleen, an art gallery owner, loves men! She acts like them. She has no problem picking a guy up in a bar and taking him home. Yet, she's very lonely!
Layan, a famous fashion designer, is in love with a married man, who she's convinced will leave his wife for her.
Zina, a doctor, still believes in fairy tales and finding Prince Charming. Desperate to get married and have a family, she indiscriminately goes on dates, in the hopes of finding Mr Right.
Director: Elie Khalife
Film Showing: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 7:30 PM (Followed by a reception)
RT: 94 mins
Twitter: @yalla3a2belkon
The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene. When racing prodigy Marah loses her place as top female racer to glamorous Betty due to an arbitrary decision by the officials, relationships in the team are strained and Marah’s resolve and the support of her hard-working family are pushed to their limits. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, SPEED SISTERS takes you on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought you could.
Director: Amber Fares
Film Showing: Secret Screening
RT: 80 mins
Twitter: @SpeedSisterFilm
In the mid-1990s, Ibrahim Gezer, a Kurd, was living happily in Turkey with his family, making a good living producing honey with his 500 bee colony.
Then came the Turkish-Kurdish war and he lost everything.On the run for seven years, he arrived in Switzerland as a refugee.
This moving documentary tracks the story of how this gentle soul, nearing retirement age, was able to rebuild his life—with nothing more than his faith in humanity and his love of bees.
Director: Mano Khalil
Awards:
Winner Prix Soleure 2013
Winner of DOK.fest 2013
Best Kurdish Doc. Movie, 2013, Duhok Int. Film Festival
Lessinia d'Argento 2013 XIX Film Festival della Lessinia
Audience Award 2013 The Neue Heimat film Freistadt
Film Showing: Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8 PM
RT: 107 mins
Language(s): In German and Kurdish with English subtitles
Official website: The Beekeeper
Read more:
Stirring drama about a young Bedouin boy on a perilous journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination across the desert in 1916 Arabia, when World War I was raging in Europe and the Ottoman Empire was coming undone.
Shot entirely on location in the ravishing desert landscape—including at some of the same locations that David Lean used for Lawrence of Arabia—Theeb is turning heads and winning awards on the festival circuit. (Jacob Burns Film Center)
Director: Naji Abu Nowar
Film Showing: Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 5 PM
RT: 100 mins
Official website: Theeb
Awards:
Winner at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival of:
- Best Narrative Film
- Best Film from the Arab World
Winner of Jury Prize for Best Cinematography and Artistic Direction at the 2014 Cairo International Film Festival.
Winner of Best Directorial Debut at the 2014 Camerimage
Winner of Jordan Alexander Kressler Screenwriting Award at the 2015 Miami Film Festival
Winner Best Director Award at the 2014 Venice Horizons Award
Read more:
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/venice-qa-jordanian-theeb-director-abu-nowar-1201293134/
NEW YORK PREMIERE
An epic about the Algerian independence, as seen through the relationship of two friends, Djaffar and Hamid, one a modest idealist, the other a consummate wheeler-dealer.
From the heady times of the revolution and the euphoric first years after independence, The Man from Oran is a soul-searching, biting critique of a nation’s psyche, and an exploration of the secrets and betrayals that drive friends apart. (Jacob Burns Film Center)
Director: Lyes Salem
Award: Best Director from the Arab World at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival in the New Horizons Competition
Film Showing: Monday, September 14, 2015 at 8 PM
RT: 128 mins
Through a clever mix of stop-motion animation and interviews, The Wanted 18 re-creates an astonishing true story: the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm had been declared “a threat to the national security of the state.” Variety says, “Highlighting the ridiculous without losing track of the seriousness of all acts of resistance, the film should open minds.” An enchanting tribute to ingenuity and activism. (Jacob Burns Film Center)
Directors: Amer Shomali & Paul Cowan
Award: Winner of the Best Documentary from the Arab World at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
Film Showing: Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 6 PM
RT: 75 mins
Official website: The Wanted 18
Read more:
2014
Its 1975. Ten-year-old Amar lives in a village in northern Morocco with his violent uncle, eagerly awaiting the unlikely return of his mother, who's left him for Belgium.
He finds a much needed friend in his neighbor, Carmen, a Spanish exile from the Franco regime. Their unlikely friendship develops through the bond of cinema, and sheds light on the ancient and complicated story that connects Spaniards and Moroccans.
Adios Carmen invokes such italian classics as Il Postino and Cinema Paradiso
Director: Mohamed Amin Benamraoui
AWARDS
- Muhr Arab Special Mention (DIFF 2013)
- 1st Prize at the Festival of Black Screens (Cameroon 2013)
Film showing: Saturday September 20, 2014 at 7:30 PM
RT: 103 mins
Kurdish teenager, Siyar, sets out on a road trip from Kurdistan to Istanbul, to Berlin and Oslo, not in search of a better life, but to track down his sister who ran away rather than submit to an arranged marriage. His goal is an honor killing.
His encounter, along the way, with Evin, a young Kurdish girl dressed as a boy, leaves him questioning his mission.
Director: Hisham Zaman
AWARDS
- Best Cinematography (Tribeca Film Festival 2013)
- Dragon Award Best Nordic Film (Göteborg International Film Festival 2013)
RT: 96 mins
Film showing: Tuesday September 23, 2014 at 7:30 PM
Hisham Zaman's Twitter account
Hiyam, a young factory worker, from a lower middle-class family dreams of the day Prince Charming will come and sweep her off her feet. Then one day he appears, in the shape of Salah, the factory's new supervisor.
The attraction is instant and Hiyam gets lost in the fantasy of love conquering all. Until a pregnancy test is discovered on the factory premises, and the fairy tale unravels.
Director: Mohamed Khan
AWARDS
- Winner Best Actress Yasmine Raies (DIFF2013)
- FIPRESCI Award winner (DIFF2013)
Film showing: Saturday September 20, 2014 at 5:10 PM
RT: 90 mins
Gulf News article on Factory Girl
On July 12, 2006, another war broke out in Lebanon, and director Philippe Aractingi found himself packing his bags and leaving the country for the third time.
While he and his family were being evacuated to France onboard a military carrier, he realized this generation was only the last in five that had been fleeing from wars and massacres.
Thus was born the idea for his new documentary Heritages - a journey through history from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, through the French mandate, the creation of Israel, Pan-Arabism, the Lebanese civil war and beyond.
Heritages is a "must-see' documentary for exiles everywhere, who've grappled with ways to tell their children about a past that "can never be talked about".
Director: Philippe Aractingi
Film showing: September 21, 2014 at 7:30 PM
RT: 96 mins
High off the success of her first book and planning to marry Ziad, her sensible, stable and studious fiance, May (Cherien Dabis) has it all. At least that’s what she’d like people to believe. Reunited with her family in Amman, Jordan, she’s thrust back into the chaos of her former existence.
Her headstrong mother Nadine (Hiyam Abbass), a born-again Christian disapproves of her Muslim fiance so thoroughly she plans to boycott the wedding. Her younger sisters resort to behaving like kids, and her estranged father, Edward, is suddenly and suspiciously interested in making amends.
As her wedding day looms, May finds herself confronted with the aftermath of her parents divorce. And soon, her once carefully structured life spins out of control. (elledriver)
Director: Cherien Dabis
AWARDS
- Nominated Grand Jury Prize/Dramatic (Sundance Film Festival 2013)
- Nominated Muhr Arab Award/Best Feature (DIFF 2013)
RT: 99 mins
Film showing: Friday September 19, 2014 at 7:30 PM
Omar, a young baker, is accustomed to dodging surveillance bullets to visit his secret love, Nadia. But Occupied Palestine knows neither love nor clear-cut war and Omar is suddenly transformed into a freedom fighter.
Suspicion and betrayal jeopardise his long-term friendships and soon his loyalties are as torn as the Palestinian landscape in this award-winning thriller/romance.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
AWARDS
Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language 2013
Best Director: Hany Abu Assad (DIFF2013)
Best Film: Waleed Zuaiter (DIFF2013)
Film showing: Saturday September 20, 2014 at 5:10 PM
RT: 98 mins
Twitter: @Omarthefilm
From 2011 to 2013, filmmaker Talal Derki follows the journey of two close friends whose lives had been upended by the battle raging in Syria.
19-year-old Basset is a local soccer star, the goalkeeper for the Syrian national team. He's also become an iconic singer in the revolution. His songs reflect his dreams for a peaceful liberation from Assad’s brutal regime.
Ossama is a 24-year-old media activist and pacifist who wields his camera to capture the revolution.
When the army cracks down, and their beloved city of Homs starts resembling a bombed-out ghost town, these two peaceful protesters finally take up arms and transform into rebel insurgents. (Sundance)
Director: Talal Derki
AWARDS
- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary (Sundance 2013)
- Winner Best Documentary (DocsBarcelona 2014)
- Winner Emerging Talent Award (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014)
- Winner Nestor Almendros Award (Human Rights Film Festival 2014)
Film showing: September 18, 2014 at 7:30 PM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@ReturnToHoms
RT: 94 mins
An engaging, bittersweet comedy about a family that comes together for three days, following the death of the family patriarch (Omar Sharif).
Swapping their swimsuits for djellabias, emotions run particularly high, when the youngest daughter Sofia, an actress, arrives from New York.
As the order once maintained by the deceased father breaks down and unravels, the women are forced to face some harsh truths. (DIFF)
Director: Laila Marrakchi
AWARDS
- Won Special Jury Circle Award (Filmfest DC 2014)
- Won Muhr Arab Special Mention for its Actress Raouia (DIFF2013)
RT: 100 mins
Film showing: Opening night, September 17, 2014 at 7:30 PM.
Feature will be followed by a reception.
Following her foray into the Roummieh male prison, with 12 Angry Lebanese, drama therapist Zeina Daccache turns her attention to female inmates.
Sheherazade's Diary is the result of a 10 month theater project involving the prison population of Baabda. As they develop the play, these "murderers of husbands, adulterers and drug felons" reveal their stories in an engaging tragicomic way, and in doing so hold a mirror up to Lebanese society and repressed women everywhere.
Director: Zeina Daccache
RT: 80 mins
The film will be closing ANA 2014 on Wednesday September 23rd at 7:30 PM
AWARDS
- FIPRESCI prize (International Critics Prize)/ Documentary (DIFF 2013)
- Won Muhr Arab Special Mention/Documentary (DIFF 2013)
Facebook page: Like it!
Twitter: Follow Zeina Daccache!
At the height of the Cold War, a group of students at the Haigazian University in Beirut set up a rocket club with the ultimate aim of propelling a Lebanese satellite into space.
It made front page news. There was a commemorative postage stamp printed. It nearly provoked an international incident when one of the rockets made it as far across the Mediterranean as Cyprus. Yet little of this is remembered in Lebanon, less still in the wider world.
Tracing the Rocket Society’s leader, Manoug Manougian, to the US, the directors begin to piece together the rise and fall of the Society and attempt to explain why it has since faded from public consciousness.
Directors: Khalil Joreige & Joana Hadjithomas
AWARDS
Best Feature Documentary (Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2012)
Film showing: Friday September 19, 2014 at 5:15 PM
RT: 90 mins
Three years on, the Egyptian Revolution continues to evolve. Two presidents have been deposed and the country finds itself back under military rule.
The Square takes us back to the heady days of Tahrir Square transporting the viewer deeply into the intense emotional drama and personal stories behind the news. It is the inspirational story of young people claiming their rights, struggling through multiple forces, in the fight to create a society of conscience.
Director: Jehane Noujaim
AWARDS
- Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (2014)
- Nominated Independent Spirit Award Best Documentary (2014)
- Won Amnesty International Film Prize (Berlin International Film Festival 2014)
- Won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (Director's Guild of America 2014)
- Won Muhr Arab Award Best Documentary (DIFF 2013)
RT: 108 mins
The film is showing on Monday September 22 , 2014 at 7:30 PM
The official website: visit it!
The Facebook page: Like it!
Twitter: Follow the film!
Wadjda, a fun-loving, entrepreneurial 10-year-old girl lives in the suburbs of Riyadh. When she sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale, she wants it desperately, but her mother won't allow her to have it, fearing repercussions from a conservative society. Wadjda decides to raise the money herself. Just as she is losing hope, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. (DFI)
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
AWARDS
- Nominated Best Film not in the English Language (BAFTA 2014)
- Nominated Best First Feature (Independent Spirit Awards 2014)
- Won Muhr Arab Award Best Actress and Best Feature Film (DIFF 2012)
- Won 'CinemAvvenire' Award for Best Film (Venice Film Festival 2012)
RT: 98 mins
The film is showing on Sunday September 21, 2014 at 5:10 PM
Official website: Visit it!
Facebook page: Like it!
Twitter: Follow the film!
2013
In Egypt many people deny the existence of AIDS, dismissing it as a decadent Western disease. For an HiV positive Egyptian woman, Asmaa (beautifully played by Hend Sabry), this means that healthcare is only one of her battles, as she wrestles with the consequences of going public with her condition. Based on a true story, this suspenseful, controversial, eloquent drama builds to a heart-wrenching finale. Written and directed by Amr Salama (Tahrir 2011), named “Star of the Future” by the Alexandria International Film Festival.
Director: Amr Salama
Awards: Best Arab Director and Best Actor, Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011
RT: 96 mins
Film showing: June 3, 2013 / 7:45 PM
Iraq in the early 1990 was a devastating land to survive in. When we think of Iraq, the first thing that tends to pop into our minds is the war and Saddam Hussein. But there is another side too - it is perhaps the most notorious country in the world and it goes by the name Kurdistan. Welcome to BEKAS. This is a story about two homeless brothers (Zana, 7) and (Dana, 10) who live on the edge of survival. In the beginning of the story they catch a glimpse of Superman through a hole in the wall at the local cinema. Zana and Dana decide that they want to go to America and live with Superman. Once they get there he can solve all their problems, make their lives easy and punish everyone that has been mean to them. Zana, the younger brother, starts to make a list of all people he is going to tell Superman to punish. On top of the list is Saddam Hussein. Dana on the other hand makes a concrete plan for what they need to get there; money, passports, transportation and a way to get across the boarder. Unfortunately they have neither of those. But in spite of everything they decide to follow the dream. Written by the director Karzan Kader
Awards: Winner of 2011 Student Academy Award (Oscar)
Director: Karzan Kader
Film showing: June 2, 2013 / 7:45PM
Official website: Facebook page
RT: 92 mins
"Blind Intersections" tackles social issues in Lebanon through three characters with different social backgrounds, [whose lives] never intersect but their destinies do. The development of one of those destinies leads to a series of events that radically change the lives of each of these characters. The characters are Nour, who lost her family in a car accident so her life is turned upside down; Andia, who has everything a woman could want except a child; and 12-year-old Marwan, who lives with a mother who is addicted to alcohol and has a bad reputation so he runs away from home to end the emotional and physical abuse he suffers.
The film enters into the lives of these characters as they are collapsing due to certain actions, events and decisions and their ensuing consequences. In short, the film talks about people's interrelated destinies and the effect of one's decisions on the lives of others even if these people never meet. The main actors are Carole al-Hajj, Leila Hakim, Shadi Haddad, Ghida Nouri, Caroline Hatem, Charbel Ziade and [the young actor] Alaa Hammoud.
from: al-shorfa.com
Blind Intersections opened The Beirut International Film Festival 2011.
Director: Lara Saba
Film showing: May 31, 2013 / 5:05 PM
RT: 92 mins
After a chance encounter with an aged furniture maker in Algiers, director Safinez Bousbia discovered chaabi music, a vibrant, cross-pollinated form that flourished in the Casbah but is little known to most Westerners. Upon learning that the man had been part of a celebrated chaabi orchestra in the 50s, Bousbia set out to find as many of his old bandmates as she could in Algeria and France -- some of them nearing their 100th birthdays, most having been unable to make a living from music for decades. From Hollywood Reporter
Director: Safinez Bousbia
RT: 88 mins
Showing: May 30, 2013 / 7:15PM
Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. Habibi is a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla. The full Arabic title is Habibi Rasak Kharban, which translates as “darling, something’s wrong with your head.”
Awards: Winner best editor, best actress, Doha International Film Festival 2011; Best Film, FIPRESCI Prize, and Camera Novo, the highest prize at the Cinema Novo Festival, Brugge; recipient of the Grand Prize in the Emerging Narrative program at IFP’s Independent Film Week
Director: Susan Youssef
RT: 78 mins
Showing: June 1, 2013 / 8 PM
10-year-old Yachine lives with his family in the Sidi Moumen slum in Casablanca. His mother leads the family as best she can. His father suffers from depression, one of his brothers is in the army, another is almost autistic and the third, Hamid (13), is the neighbourhood boss and Yachine’s protector.
When Hamid is sent to jail, Yachine takes job after job, however hopeless, to try and lift himself up from the violence, misery and drugs that surround him. Released from prison, now an Islamic fundamentalist, Hamid persuades Yachine and his friends to join their “brothers”.
The Imam - their spiritual leader - starts to direct their arduous physical and mental preparation. One day, he tells them they have been chosen to become martyrs.
HORSES OF GOD was inspired by the terrorist attacks of May 16th, 2003 in Casablanca.
Director: Nabil Ayouch
RT: 113 mins
Showing: June 5, 2013 / 7:30 PM
A film about submission, in love, faith and politics. The Muslim Brotherhood has come to power in Egypt. What does it preach? How does it operate? What does it demand? Follow the lives of four young men and women as they learn about sex, marriage and gender roles at a Brotherhood charity. How to build a home? Istislam is one solution.
Director: Mona el-Naggar
RT: 46 min
Showing: June 2, 2013 / 2 PM (with Sanctity)
Sanctity, shot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is a bold short that centres on Areej (Ahd), a young pregnant woman grieving the loss of her husband. Ignoring laws and social customs that forbid her from seeing another man until two months after her husband's death, Areej strikes on odd partnership with a street urchin after her brother-in-law starts blackmailing her for money she apparently owes him. Sanctity is also written and directed by Ahd.
Director: Ahd
RT: 37 mins
Showing: June 2, 2013 / 2 PM (playing with Istislam)
The Attack is the thrilling adaptation of pseudonymous Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra’s controversial novel. On the eve of being honored for his career as a highly regarded Palestinian Surgeon working in Israel, Dr. Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman) rushes back to the hospital to operate on the victims of a suicide bomb attack. Later that night he is called back to identify the body of the bomber, only to find out it's his wife. All falls apart as Amin has to question everything. His marriage, his career, his identify, his friends, all he ever believed in.
Director: Ziad Doueiri
RT: 102 mins
Showing: June 4, 2013 / 7:45 PM
Deeply insightful about the human-rights situation in Tunisia in the 70s, ‘Professor’ is a dramatisation of the events surrounding a university law instructor’s involvement with the government of President Habib Bourguiba. Appointed by the ruling party to defend the official position of its League of Human Rights during a period of tension between the government and the unions, Khalil Kalsaoui is having an extra-marital affair with one of his students. When she is arrested for her political views and opposition to authorities, Khalil attempts to defend her – and soon finds his career and personal life in jeopardy. Established director Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud echoes the deterioration of human rights in Tunisia under recently deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and in doing so demonstrates one of the main forces driving Tunisia’s revolution of 2011. Indeed, the film is itself a document of the revolution – shooting was repeatedly stopped during Ben Ali’s rule and could only be finished after the success of the revolution. (DTFF 2012)
Director: Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud
RT: 92 mins
Showing: May 31, 2013 / 8PM
An award-winner at film festivals from Cannes to Toronto, this bittersweet crowd pleaser set box-office records in Lebanon and received a standing ovation when it played at the new Directors/new Film series in new York last year. it’s the story of a remote Lebanese village that’s suffered centuries of religious strife. The women aren’t going to take it anymore, and they band together to distract their squabbling men, hiring Ukrainian showgirls and doing everything else they can think of in their determination to keep the peace.
Director: Nadine Labaki
RT: 110 min
Showing: June 3, 2013 / 5:05 PM
Amin Bertale, alias “Zero,” is 30-something police officer walking the streets of Casablanca. He is overwhelmed by a sense of futility and loss, by the corruption that surrounds him, and by the constant needs of his disabled, abusive father. He has to make a change, to turn from Zero into something more. Meeting a mother searching for her lost daughter is the first step in his new life. A host of new possibilities reveal themselves as he turns the page.
Awards:
Grand Prize of 14th National Film Festival in Tangier
- Best Actor Award for Younes Bouab
- Best Supporting Actor Award for the deceased Mohamed Majd
- Best Supporting Actress Award for Sonia Okacha
- Best Sound Award for Emmanuel Legall
International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Tetouan
- Special Jury Prize
- Best Actor Award for Younes Bouab
- Audience Award
Director: Nour-Eddine Lakhmari
RT: 111 min
Showing: June 1, 2013 / 5 PM
2012
Brahim lives a lonely life selling cars in Lebanon.A chance encounter with Leila, for whom he committed a murder 20 years ago in Jordan sets him on a journey to his past, his family and the tribal community he left behind.Forced to play dead and flee incognito to Lebanon, leaving behind a wife and son who think he “died a hero”.
A Man of Honor sets the struggle of community honor against that of individual rights. When myth comes crashing against reality, shame and revenge mix with honor as Brahim struggles to regain his dignity.
Director: Jean-Claude Codsi
Film showing: May 10, 2012
Official website: A Man of Honor
Facebook page
RT: 91 mins
Released in Egypt around the time of last year’s revolution, Mohamed Diab’s Cairo 678 is a powerful portrait of three women drawn from across Cairo’s complex social hierarchy that are brought together by sexual harrassment. Fayza, a traditionally-minded mother, is molested on a daily basis as she takes the bus to work; Seba, a wealthy jewelry designer, recovering from a vicious gang assault starts her own support group, and Nelly, an aspiring stand-up comic draws national outrage for daring to file a sexual harassment lawsuit. The film follows this trio as, frustrated by the lackadaisical response from authorities, they decide to take the law into their own hands and begin exacting violent revenge on men foolish enough to try and harass them.
Director: Mohamed Diab
Official website: Cairo678
Played at: New Directors New Films
Awards: Special Jury Prize Chicago Film Festival 2011
Best Actress and Best Actor Prizes, Dubai International Film Festival 2010
RT: 100 mins
In German-occupied Paris, a young unemployed Algerian named Younes (played by break-out star, Tahar Rahim) earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspect the Mosque authorities, including its rector Ben Ghabrit, of aiding Muslim Resistance agents and helping North African Jews by giving them false certificates. At the Mosque, Younes meets the Algerian singer Salim Halali, and is moved by Salim’s beautiful voice and strong personality. When Younes discovers that Salim is Jewish, he stops collaborating with the police and gradually transforms from a politically ignorant immigrant into a fully-fledged freedom fighter.
Directed by:
Showing: May 12, 2012
Film previously played at: Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival
Awards: Best Director from the Arab World Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011
RT: 99 mins
Teta, Alf Marra which translates to Grandma, A Thousand Times, is a poetic documentary that puts a feisty Beiruti grandmother at the center of brave film exercises concocted by her grandson to capture and commemorate her many worlds before they are erased by the passage of time and her eventual death.
Teta Kaabour is an 83-year old family matriarch and sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. She’s been gripped as of late by the silence of her once-buzzing household where she raised children and grandchildren. Resigned to Argileh smoking and day-long coffee drinking on a now-empty balcony, Teta now invokes the deepest memories of her violinist husband who died twenty years ago. She claims a preparedness to re-unite with him.
Filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour, Teta’s favorite grandson and the bearer of his grandfather’s full name, has also been pre-occupied for years with the memory of his grandfather. Prior to his death, the late violinist had audio taped heart-wrenching violin improvisations in the privacy of his room in that same flat. That music, along with the details of his long career playing with the Arab world’s most famous divas, remains unpublished. The filmmaker’s anguish is compounded at the thought that this personal and cultural heritage, as well as grandma’s own stories, rare recipes, and naughty humor, will go with her when she parts this life.
Teta, Alf Marra brings together grandfather, grandmother, and grandson in a playful magic-realist documentary that aims to defy a past death and a future one. It documents with great intimacy the larger-than-life character of Teta Kaabour, her telling of the trials of her violinist husband and his Beirut, as well as her imaginings of what awaits her beyond death. All while the filmmaker constantly switches roles between the film’s silent creator, Teta’s grandson in front of the camera, and a re-enactor of his late grandfather. Meanwhile, the deceased violinist circles them with his seven violin improvisations that serve as the impetus of the film and its soundtrack.
Director: Mahmoud Kaabour
Film showing: May 13, 2012
Official website: Teta, Alf Marra
Awards: Winner of Audience Award Best Documentary at Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2011
RT: 48 mins
Read more in Gulf News:
Emirati filmaker is raising the barNY Times Review
Variety Review
Very few films manage to bring home the schizophrenic realities of today’s Lebanon, a country of extremes. One half is the Paris of the Middle East and the playground of the Arab world, while the other defines itself by its seemingly endless war against Israel. This film is a courageous, provocative attempt to bring it all together through the “war of the video clips” on opposing parties’ TV channels. A revealing journey through modern Lebanon, a country torn between violence, lust and amnesia.
Director: Wissam Charaf
Film showing: May 14, 2012
Facebook page:
RT: 62 mins
An urban musical drama that looks into the thriving arts underground in Alexandria, a historic city that is little seen in Egyptian movies. Presenting a microcosm of the youth of the Arab spring – and interweaving actors with actual filmmakers, graffiti artists, skateboarders and hip hop musicians – Microphone is an intriguing portrait of a vibrant subculture, studded with dazzling performances. [Synopsis courtesy Toronto International Film Festival]
Director: Ahmad Abdalla
Film showing: May 11, 2012
Official website: Microphone
Awards: Best Arabic Movie at the Cairo Film Festival; Best Editor at the Dubai Film Festival
RT: 116 mins
After the death of her mother, 19-year-old Shirin discovers her father’s plans to trade her in exchange for a new wife. Unable to accept this, she escapes to the big city with her secret boyfriend. When he is arrested, she must face the dangers and challenges of her new life alone.
Director: Halkawt Mustafa
Film showing: May 13, 2012
Official website: Red Heart
RT: 74 mins
Review: Khaleej Times
(Movies That Matter) Hebba Younis (Mona Zaki) is a modern TV host. ‘Egypt’s Oprah Winfrey’ is pressured by her husband Karim (El Raddad) to avoid bringing up political subjects in her talk show – only that way he will have a chance to become editor in chief of the state-owned newspaper. Hebba therefore chooses to conduct personal interviews with women from all layers of society. Their stories cause even more outrage, though, since they do not portray Egyptian men in a very flattering way. What’s personal reveals itself to be political, too – with all its consequences for Karim and Hebba.
Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story is a radically feminist movie by Yousry Nasrallah, and an indictment of the role played by men in Egyptian society. It is presumably for that reason that the movie became a big hit among Egyptian cinema goers.
Director: Yousry Nasrallah
Showing: May 9, 2012
Has been shown at the: Doha Tribeca Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival
RT: 135 mins
n the waning days of the summer 1976, in the northern suburbs of Beirut, Noha is readying to get married. Her family, relieved that they won’t be burdened by two old maids, excitedly prepare for the wedding. But, two weeks before the festivities are scheduled, Noha suddenly changes her mind.
Director: George Hachem
Film showing: May 15, 2012
Official website: Stray Bullet
Awards: Best Film Muhr Award DTFF 2010
RT: 77 mins
Variety magazine article
The world was riveted by the revolution on the streets of Cairo in January 2011, which ended in the arrest and trial of President Hosni Mubarak. This documentary, one of the first to come out of Egypt and picked up by all the major western film festivals, presents the events as seen through the eyes of three filmmakers, each of whom focuses on them a particular angle: The demonstrations in Tahrir Square, police brutality and political corruption.
Director: Tamer Ezzat, Ayten Amin, Amr Salama
Film showing: May 12, 2012
Awards: Best documentary at Oslo Films From the South Festival, UNESCO Human Rights Award.
Previously shown at the: Toronto International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival
RT: 90 mins
Nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes, The Time That Remains is an intimate, semi-autobiographical portrait of Palestinians living as a minority in their own homeland from the time Israel declared its independence in 1948 to the present day. Completing a trilogy that began with 1996′s Chronicle of a Disappearance and continued with Divine Intervention in 2002, The Time That Remains is the most ambitious, wide-ranging film of the trio, spanning 60 years of life in Nazareth via four vignettes drawn from director Elia Suleiman’s own family history. Throughout, Suleiman applies an absurdist comic sensibility to his ruminations on the changes in his homeland after 1948, and the ways in which Palestinians have tried to maintain some sense of continuity in their lives ever since.
Director: Elia Suleiman
Film showing: May 12, 2012
Awards: Best Director at Mar Del Plata Film Festival, Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Nominated for La Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival
RT: 109 mins
Sundance Institute : “Actress and star of the Egyptian cinema from 1959 to 1991, Soad Hosni commits suicide in London in 2001 at the age of 59. Her tragic end overwhelms the entire Arab world stunned by the death of “Zuzu”, their charming and sensual Arabic Cinderella. The Egyptian authorities don’t know what to do with the body of a suicide star, a taboo death in the orient. This disappearance, which conceals others, reveals the tensions around the representation of the Arab women today, in the orient as well as in the west.”
Director: Rania Stephan
Film showing: May 13, 2012
Awards: Best Arab Documentary Filmmaker Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2011
RT: 135 mins
Aïcha Aya is the sole survivor of a bus crash on a mountain road. When she realises that nobody knows she is alive, she makes a snap decision to escape her dead-end village existence and become someone else. In thriving, liberal Tunis, she calls herself Amira, a thrilling change until one of those men is murdered and the investigating police start to question “Amira”’s sketchy life story.
Sources: Red Sea International Film Festival
Awards
81st Venice Film Festival: Best Mediterranean Film Award
RT: 123 mins.
Director: MEHDI BARSAOUI