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Projects 2019/2020
July 24, 2020
Published by Close Up on November 27, 2020
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Projects 2020/2021

Project 2020-2021

CLOSE UP

AFTER A VERY COMPETITIVE SELECTION PROCESS, 16 POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS WERE SELECTED FOR THE 2020-2021 CLOSE-UP PROGRAM!

The projects were selected amongst more than 80 Applications from all across the Middle East & North Africa, including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kurdish-Turkish, Kurdish-Syrian, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey & UAE.
We would like to thank all the filmmakers that applied, they all faced tremendous competition!

ALI SHAIB: HERO FOR SOME, VILLAIN FOR OTHERS

Mira Shaib, LEBANON / Producer : Zeina Badran, LEBANON


Ali Shaib was the leader of the Bank of America’s hijack in Beirut in October 1973. Forty-six years later, in October 2019, his name became a symbol of Lebanon’s youthful revolution. Much mystery surrounds the 26 hours that he and his comrades spent in the bank. This documentary will revisit that eventful night and uncover the truth behind the circumstances that led to the bank’s hijack. And, through never before seen interviews with witnesses and family members, we will know more about Ali, the man, the poet, and the rebel.

BAGHDAD IN FIRE

Karrar Al-Azzawi,  IRAQ


Tiba, a 20-year-old Iraqi activist, is fighting under the demonstrations for her homeland, her rights, and the rights for women in Iraq. She grew up in a manly society, where she was forced to marry a man chosen by her father. TIBA grew up surrounded by conflict, in a world full of fear and instability.

Tiba with the Iraqi youth went out on October 1st, 2019 protesting against corruption, the ruling parties, as well as all external interference in Iraq. These peaceful youth demonstrations resulted in 700 people being killed, more than 22,000 wounded, and 2000 arrested and kidnapped.

DESTINY

Yaser Talebi, IRAN / Producer: Elahe Nobkht, IRAN


Sahar is an 18-year-old girl living in a village in Northern Iran. After her mother’s death, Sahar has lived alone with her cognitively impaired father Rahim. Sahar has taken on a mother’s assistance. The traditional family demands that she should give up her own future dream and take care of her father. The only way-out would be remarriage for the father but she thinks it’s not fair to spoil another woman’s life to take care of a retarded, poor man. Sahar’s wish is to study. The dilemma begins here, following her dreams or taking care of his father?

DREAM FACTORY

Hesam Eslami, IRAN / Producer: Etienne de Ricaud, FRANCE


Pol Sefid is a small city from Northern Iran, one of the various historical cities harboring a large number of pre-Islamic mausoleums and treasures. The economic crisis has hit the country hard and bolstered a perilous “yellow fever”, a dream that had always existed within the Iranian population: the quest for hidden treasures to escape an economic condition, also the quest for an Absolute to escape a human condition.

FOR HAVEN’S SAKE

Arkus, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES / Producer: Gargi Chakrabarti, UAE


For Haven’s Sake’ is a mixed genre documentary film that chronicles the life and journey of Adeeb Sami. Following the first Gulf war, Adeeb Sami escaped from Iraq looking for a safe haven for his family. He took a breather in the United Arab Emirates for a while, wanting to return to his homeland when the situation normalized. But the 2003 invasion of Iraq dashed Adeeb’s hopes and he decided that he needed to make a more permanent move to another country, New-Zealand. Little did he know, the safe haven he was going moving to, would be one where he would end up getting shot at.

I’VE GOT THE POWER

Rüzgar Buşki, TURKEY / Producer: Ekin Çalışır, TURKEY


Amidst rising oppression in Turkey, four Superheroes join forces to confront death and seek healing after the tragic deaths of their loved ones. Through music and glamorous performances they transform pain into power by queering grief.

I’ve Got the Power portrays four pals who are dealing with the sudden loss of close friends and family members, as violence and oppression reach extreme levels in Turkey. At an exclusive storytelling workshop developed for them, Hande, Salih, Buse and Nihal come together with burning questions…

INTERVIEW 101

Basel Adaraa, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Balal, PALESTINE/ISRAEL 


Every Monday, the Israeli army demolishes a house in the South Hebron Hills. Instead of making yet another fly-on-the-wall movie about this unjust reality, two young Palestinian activists, and a young Israeli journalist, film the process of making a movie about it – filming themselves create it. As the film slowly comes into being, the power dynamic between “interviewer” and “interviewee” shifts, and a passionate, often heartbreaking friendship is formed.

IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE

Rachida Al Garani, MOROCCO / Producer: Jurgen Buedts, BELGIUM


Twenty-eight years ago, when Rachida was just 16, her father forced her to marry a Moroccan man she didn’t know. This became a very violent and abusive marriage. Today Rachida is looking for answers before it gets too late and talks to her father with love like only a daughter can do. Just like her father, Rachida became passionate about film. She invites her father to work together on a film—one about the life and coal miner past of young Mohamed. They will write the scenes together, cast actors, and find locations. But her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his memories seem far away. During this process, Rachida questions the position of women within the patriarchal Moroccan culture.

LIFE BEYOND BORDERS

Haydar Demirtas, KURDISH-TURKISH  / Producer: Hasan Demirtas, KURDISH-TURKISH 


Eyoub, was the main character in Bahman Ghobadi’s A Time for Drunken Horses, portraying a young smuggler boy. He envisioned a better life for himself then becoming an actual smuggler as he grew up, but life did not favor him. We follow Eyoub and other smugglers on the Iran – Iraq border, who experience life threatening struggles on everyday basis.

REACHING FOR THE DREAM

Najiba Noori, AFGHANISTAN


When Hawa was forced to marry Musa, she was thirteen. Musa was 25 years older than her. Before marriage, she called him ‘Uncle’. Her father gave her to Musa in exchange for some cows and sheep. Musa and Hawa emigrated to Iran, and they now have six children who are not a product of love.

Today, Hawa is 50 and Musa is 75. They live with three of their children in Kabul, Afghanistan. Tired of these games and his behavior, Hawa decides to go out and do all the things she dreamed over the years. With the 50 dollars she has saved, she plans to join a group of women in starting a business selling traditional Hazara dresses. With the income from the business, Hawa hopes to buy a pair of golden earrings to replace those that Musa took from her and sold 20 years ago when they emigrated to Iran.

SAVOY

Zohar Wagner, ISRAEL


While cheating on her husband, Palestinian guerillas stormed into the day-use Savoy hotel and took Kohava Levi hostage. To save her life and honor, she transformed herself through the night into a heroine. However, by dawn, she was left with only shame.

SEARCHING FOR KIKHIA

Jihan Kikhia, LIBYA


Director Jihan unravels the disappearance of her father (Mansur Rashid Kikhia), the peaceful opposition leader to Qaddafi, and pieces together her mother’s 19-year search to find him. Jihan’s journey leads to a series of encounters that reactivate her connection to her father, who she lost when she was 6 years old. She tries to restore his legacy and reconcile with her Libyan identity. Instead of her mission uncovering the truth, she embraces indeterminacy and reaches closure through a celebration of her father’s life, while simultaneously regaining hope for Libya, which is currently drowning in civil war and risks total disappearance.

SHE WAS NOT ALONE

Hussein Al-Assadi, IRAQ


The film explores the life of an amusing elderly woman who lives alone in a small reed hut amidst the marshes of Southern Iraq. Having never been married, and with no family to keep her company, she spends her days of solitude caring for her cattle and the land.

THE STORY OF A PINK RIDING HAT

Sidar İnan Erçelik, TURKEY


This story is about forced immigration, pain and healing through the story of 3 generations in one Turkish family, the father,  Zülfiye and her daughter, Yeliz.

TO REALM OF SHADOWS 

Negin Ahmadi, IRAN / Producer: Elahe Nobkht, IRAN


A group of women in Syria have spent many years fighting against their patriarchal society, a society that did not give women even their first human right!! After years of hard work in this area, Nasirn, who becomes the commander later, along with some of her friends decides to form a group to fight against this mentality, but at the very same time Syria suffered an ISIL war and Nasrin and her friends, who later got martyred in the ISIS war, decided to form the first female army in the history of the world aiming to effectively fight terrorism.

Q 

Jude Chehab, LEBANON


“God works in mysterious ways and so do women…”

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, the regime-loving Sufis turned cult through the filmmaker, her mother and her grandmother’s relationship to the group.

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Projects 2020/2021

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