We are thrilled to announce the continuation of our beautiful long-time partnership with the Middle East Now Film Festival, in Florence, Italy, between October 4-9!

We’ll be there to present a showcase of five extraordinary works-in-progress and will have a panel discussion with our filmmakers. This year’s festival theme is “Abstract of Home”, a reflection on the concept of “home” in the Middle East, represented on the big screen through different perspectives.
The Close Up showcase is curated by the Close Up Executive Director Sigal Yehuda who will present Close Up and moderate the session with the selected filmmakers whose projects are dealing with the concept of home. Each filmmaker will present 10-minute segments from their film that will be followed by a Q&A.

The selected projects are:
Concrete Land by Asmahan Bkerat and co-written by Ban Maraqa,
Entangled Hopeful Bird by Dawood Hilmandi and Ezatullah Alidost,
I am an Olive Tree by Yasaman Sharifmanesh,
Out of Place by Mohammed Al-Majdalawi.

Let’s Play Soldiers directed by Mariam Al-Dhubhani will take part in the “Focus Yemen” program this year at the Middle East Now Film Festival, where the filmmakers will screen 10 minutes of a work in progress project and join a panel discussion on Yemen.

We are thankful to the Middle East Now Festival for welcoming Close Up filmmakers and giving them the opportunity to share their stories on the big screen.
We are sure that this will be a fruitful experience for all our filmmakers!
Check out the full program Here.