Arabic

A documentary filmmaker in Cairo is having difficulty finishing his film, so his friends send him footage from the cities they live in: Baghdad, Beirut, and Berlin.

Berlinale’s description
Downtown Cairo is an organism that still seems alive back in winter 2009/10, but is becoming increasingly alien even to those born there. Khalid is looking for a flat. He’s a filmmaker. He looks at his images over and over again, as if he were waiting from them to produce some sort of meaning. The stories of his protagonists seem to come from somewhere inside him, he seeks points of reference in the outside world. The more he looks for them, the more they seem to disappear; not abruptly though, but in lengthy moments full of tenderness, such as when he bids farewell to his girlfriend who is leaving him, to his ill mother, to friends who have come to the city to premiere their films.Read More »

Romeo and Juliet in the Algerian desert. Amin and Myriam are secretly in love. Their families are rivals and when their relationship is discovered, conflict is inevitable. In the quiet atmosphere of the palm groves, the two communities have long nurtured the seeds of discord and hatred. The persecution is the first signal of inevitable evil. From inside the cave where they have taken refuge, the two young people hear the cries of a senseless murderous raid. A universal metaphor to denounce the horror of all extremist violence, The Desert Ark is a splendid and terrifying metaphor for a burning contemporary reality.Read More »

Synopsis
A refugee torn from her Middle Eastern home, Myriam resettles in the Midwest, documenting her early experiences in this new land through a poignant letter addressed to her grandmother she was forced to leave.Read More »

Quote:
A Tunisian woman is caught between her maternal love and her search for the truth when her son returns home from war and unleashes a darkness throughout their village.Read More »

imdb:
Marie travels from France to Israel, where her family now lives, to marry her one true love. “Seven Blessings”is a week of festive meals in honor of the bride. This week turns into a sad comedy about family crimes, forgiveness and loss.Read More »

BEATS OF THE ANTONOV tells the story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.
Giloo RipRead More »

Adam is a Christian Arab living in Nazareth – member of a vanishing minority within a minority in the Holy Land and the Middle East. His wife Lamia is a strong, beautiful and progressive Arab woman, who runs a foundation for women’s rights. When Adam hears that Lamia is pregnant and his father falls very ill, he evaluates his life and realizes that he has not achieved much. Despite all his business ideas failing so far, he gives one last try to make it big. And what’s better to sell in the Holy Land other than the very air that Virgin Mary breathed during her annunciation?Read More »

Irrepressible Touda only dreams of one thing: being a Sheikha, a respected traditional Moroccan performer empowered by the lyrics of the fierce female poets who came before her – with their songs of resistance and emancipation.

Performing every evening in provincial bars under the lustful gaze of men, Touda plans to set her sights on leaving her small village for the bright lights of Casablanca where she hopes to be recognized as a true artist and also secure a better future for her and her son.Read More »

On the way to their dream chance at a new beginning, Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda end up in ‘stopover’ Athens. To a Land Unknown follows the two as they desperately plan their escape route when their paths cross with a young boy from Gaza and a lonely Greek woman. With their friendship and souls at stake for a passport to freedom, Chatila and Reda are drawn into a spiral of crime and violence. More and more, the in-between area tragically turns into a grey area … Internationally acclaimed director Mahdi Fleifel keeps the audience on the edge of their seat and humanity at the heart of his social-realist thriller. Anchored by nuanced performances by leads Mahmood Bakri and Aram Sabbah.Read More »