Close Up at EFM at the Berlinale

It has been an amazing start of the year so far for Close Up. As we are head into February, we have more good news to announce!

We are so excited to partner with the prestigious European Film Market (EFM) at the Berlinale this year, where five Close Up projects will be presented and pitched to international industry professionals as part of the Rough-Cut Presentation program on February 11.

A showcase of five extraordinary Close Up projects from Palestine/Israel, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran and Egypt, all currently in post-production, will be presented, followed by a presentation on Close Up activities and accomplishments by executive director, Sigal Yehuda.

If you are participating at the European Film Market this year, please register and join us for this event! More details to follow soon.

The projects include:

• NO OTHER LAND / Palestine, Israel — Basel, a young Palestinian activist who has been filming homes in his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers, develops an unlikely, intimate friendship with a similarly aged Israeli journalist – who joins his struggle.

• KAMAY / Afghanistan — After a young girl from the mountains of central Afghanistan mysteriously commits suicide inside Kabul University, her family’s calm rural life enters into a painful and exhausting processas her parents are looking for justice in a country on the verge of collapse.

• Q / Lebanon — For over fifty years a Syrian movement has been secretly growing into the largest Muslim women’s organization in the world. Through a generational lens, Q takes us deep into the mysterious, unspoken of world of the Qubaysiat.

• LETTERS FROM MS. IRAN / Iran — The story of two Iranian women who meet through an email exchange, as narrated by a third person. Through their letters, we witness an alternative history of Iran over the past fifty years.

• SEARCHING FOR MARIAM / Egypt — Cinderella is a young trans woman in Egypt trying to find her missing trans friend Mariam. Her quest gives us a unique perspective on Mariam’s complex character and the underrepresented trans struggle in Egypt.