CLOSE UP
After years in exile, Zainab Al-Hariri returns to her homeland of Iraq, to uncover the circumstances surrounding her father’s involvement in a plot to assassinate Saddam Hussein, and his subsequent arrest and execution decades earlier. As Zainab confronts the past and unravels the history of a despotic regime, what will she discover about the man she loved and lost?
After serving 30 years in prison for being a “terrorist”, 67 years old Turkish Marxist socialist woman, Güneş embarks on a challenging journey to complete her mission; making a revolution, from where she left off. Güneş holds on to her mission, but the challenges of the new world will push her to question her endurance and her relevancy.
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 event and exhausting process. Parents are now looking for justice in one of the most corrupt judicial systems in the world; while Freshta -their younger daughter- attempts to gain admission to the same university, to complete what her sister had started.
An eighty-year-old woman is sentenced to three years of house arrest by Turkish courts for sending clothes to her son, a Kurdish guerrilla, whom she has not seen for twenty-five years.
A coming of age story of young Palestinians from Jabalia refugee camp, who have now successfully settled in Europe. Built on unique visual material filmed throughout 20 years, the film explores the personal transition and change of its protagonists from youth to adulthood. As a deep and intimate dialogue of this generation, spiced with humor and brutal honesty, the film reflects upon universal questions of personal growth and change.
As part of a circular immigration program, Saloua, a Moroccan widow with five children, goes four months a year to harvest strawberries in Andalusia to provide for her family. Rotten Strawberry provides an intimate view into the female experience of seasonal work…
In Egypt, Cinderella is trying to adjust to the new biological expression of her gender as a woman, while searching for her missing trans friend, Mariam. In order to survive, Mariam, who identifies as a woman, continues to live as a man. She ends up growing a beard and becomes an imam. Cinderella‘s quest to find her offers a unique perspective on Mariam’s complex character. The narrative reveals the underrepresented trans struggle in the only Arab country that legalized medical transition.
Six weddings and a baby tells the story of how the birth of my little girl confuses my feminine identity, forcing me, as a new mother, to go back to my childhood memories. On both sides of the Mediterranean, from the Moroccan Rif to Brussels, I go on a journey through the history of the women of my family.
From the myth of the patron saint of the acrobats, Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa, to the myth of my family, and my grandfather. Mbark born in Morocco in 1900, who at 12-years-old joined the circus and moved to Germany, later he married the German Acrobat, Anna, together, they returned to Morocco and Mbark married Mm’i, a young Moroccan woman who was my grandmother. The Acrobat will go beyond the legend and forgotten to discover and reveal my family’s hidden and sometimes mysterious past.
When Elsadig and Abuzar met while filming the Sudanese revolution in 2019, neither knew they would eventually turn the camera on each other. An intimate journey of a growing friendship between two directors, whom seeking redemption and beauty through the art of filmmaking when all the odds are against them.
This film is a personal quest, triggered by the oriental jewish artist Salim Halali’s music, that makes me question my identity and belonging. The film takes us in an extraordinary journey into his life and his music and brings me to the source of my origins, exploring the most intimate impact of art.
An exclusive look inside “Conversion Therapy”. Lev and Ben attend conversion therapy in order to battle their same sex attractions and marry a woman. While Lev struggles to make it work, Ben has doubts that are about to change his life.