Discoveries from Saudi Arabia World Cinema

A girl asks for her parent's permission to go out with her friend.

Dani, a young artist, being taught how to adapt to autism, now builds her animation company for autistic artists.

For an estimated population of 4 million, Lebanon boasts some 200,000 foreign domestic workers, contracted under a system of full custodianship that deprives them of basic rights. Implemented since the start of the civil war (1975), this system is borrowed from similar ones in the Gulf countries. It is predicated on a transaction whereby the worker is not providing a service, but is rather commodified as a product, with specialised agencies organising their import under conditions not unlike modern-day outposts of slavery. Director Maher Abi Samra places his camera inside the offices of the El Raed agency with the full complicity of its owner Zein. Diligently, unobtrusively, he observes and probes. The components of this state-sanctioned system come undone methodically

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.

Having lost his father, 12-year-old Farhad lives with his mother and little sister in the village of Nahooj. Drawn to photography and the magazines he can get his hands on, Farhad sells one of his sheep to buy a second-hand camera. His mother finds out and demands that he return it and get a refund. A driver secretly in love with her will help Farhad with his adventure.

Raises questions without seeking answers, following several characters of all ages, generations and social level as well as a member of the people and an association representative in addition to a sociologist and a psychiatrist. This documentary deals with the issue of racism historically, geographically, economically, culturally, psychologically and socially. A young black graduate from Gabès who returns to the country determined to put his know-how in communication for the benefit of the motherland but his multiple contacts open his eyes to discriminatory attitudes contrary to religious precepts and political choices of his country some of which date back to the 19th century with the abolition of slavery on January 23, 1846 by Ahmed Bey.

A parable on the Syrian present by mixing footage of the protests in Syria and a circus performance that involves a lion and goes awry with a nod to Fellini’s cinema.

Silhouette is a story about a mentally unstable man, who has fear of the outside world, and can't get out of his room, how will he eat. How will he live without any help from an outsider and what is the cause of his fear from the outside.

A refugee in the United States must find her disappeared brother, despite her self-weakness of the final result, as she finds an evidence that can lead her to him through the only witness who's about to go overseas.

Following an act of vandalism, the Palestinian filmmaker's father decides to install a surveillance camera to record the scenes unfolding in front of the house. Everyday family life, or neighbours going to work, Unusual Summer captures fleeting moments of poetry whereas, in the background, the daily choreography of Ramla, located in today's Israël, comes to the surface.

An encounter... a phone call... rain and lightning. A love lost in the darkness of a city, Beirut.

This film by French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada observes the elaborate fossil industry in Morocco. Paying homage to the 'preparators' in the arid region between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert, whose intrepid work is fueling a thriving trade in artifacts real, faux and hybrid, False Start is a rebuke to the fetishistic thirst for foreign objects, a sly meditation on authenticity, and a paean to creativity.

Ahmed Shukairi's visit to Medina takes on a different character, where he tries to explore the great efforts that have been made to develop it while preserving its heritage at the same time.

An endless scan is done on a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, revealing different body parts and uncanny stories filled with trauma and anguish. This trip inside the body and the mind of the “refugees” will be creating an apocalyptic poem reflecting a chaotic reality.

Aisha, Fatima and Ghareeb are amongst the best known honey specialists in the northern parts of the UAE. Ghareeb is also considered a beekeeper because he established a sanctuary at the top of the mountains, where he can be in control of the surrounding environment and protect his honeybees. Fatima and Aisha prefer to roam the mountains freely to find the highest natural honey. Meanwhile, the bees are coping with climate change, survival challenges and the production of honey. Involuntarily, the bees have become integral to the lives of Aisha, Fatima and Ghareeb. But, for how long and to what extent can the bees keep providing?

The “CittàGiardino” centre for immigrants is closing. There are only six teenagers left in the house. They have all arrived from Africa, walking through the desert, or risking their lives by boat across the sea. Now they are there stuck in the Sicilian hinterland, waiting desperately for a visa that might not come at all or a transfer directive. Thus, the days begin to look all the same. Sleeping, eating, and toying endlessly with their smartphones hoping that something might happen in one way or another. And the feeling of being like a trapped animal or a prisoner grows increasingly stronger. But Sahid does not like to wait anymore, idling around, while time slows down excruciatingly. With the help of his friend Farouq he plots an escape plan.

Hussein is a young villager who dreams of becoming a famous singer because of his beautiful voice, which makes his cousin Ghobashi drives a wedge between him and his love Sitita. Hussein travels to Cairo in search of opportunity, he finds his chance in a singing hall and becomes famous.

Two married couple trying to change each other.

After experiencing traumatic events, a nurse has difficulty performing her duties due to a hostile work environment.

It tells the story of two individuals sitting in silence between a cup of tea and an ashtray, where a simple conversation transforms into a mirror reflecting the void of routine and the loss of meaning the noise of habit.

Mawahib Band : Sincerity Of Loyalty

Abdulmalik’s brother has died suddenly but, even as the family’s men gather in remembrance, he hides the truth from his blind father. When an uncle delivers the dead man’s clothes, Abdulmalik starts wearing his signet ring to avoid telling the truth. Does his father suspect, anyway? When his rosary breaks, he tells his surviving son it had reached the end of its life and cannot be mended. Abdulmalik sets about restringing the beads, but his father’s words are an omen.

During the days of filming his scenes in a movie, Majed knows on a dusty day that his son has been harassed, so he begins his journey to search for the aggressor.

Abbas a retired postman, who has spent his life harming people, assuming no responsibility for others, is one day sentenced to death for involvement in a fatal accident. One day before his execution, a ghost visits him in his cell to sign a pact: he will gain freedom for 24 hours and will try to reconcile with all the people for whom he has hurt in the past, if he successful, he will avoid the death penalty. Will Abbass succeed in accomplishing his mission?

A unique historical portrait of the Palestinian people's struggle to produce their own image. Using material long hidden in archives across the globe, the film reaches back through the modern history of Palestine and reverses decades of colonial dominance with a mosaic of struggle from the perspective of the colonized.

A woman recounts her story of the mass exodus of Palestinians from Jerusalem, beginning with the arrival and ending with the departure. The tale moves backwards in time and through various landscapes but the events are not being undone and the story has not been untold. Farther Than The Eye Can See is the tracing of a decaying experience told through words of a place that no longer exists.

In the film "Beyond The Shifting Sands", the boundaries between the documentary, the real, and the imagined are blurred. Ultimately, it offers no definitive answers but instead positions the viewer on the very threshold where the artists stand: the threshold between what we know and what we are yet to discover. It is there, where the sand becomes memory, the image an indelible trace, and identity a promise renewed with every glance. This is a film about art as a state of life, and the human beings seeing themselves in a sketch that takes shape only to gradually fade away — as if beauty is not drawn to endure, but rather to offer a reminder that everything we seek... may, in fact, reside within the drawing of the sand itself.

Under unbearable pressure and bitter struggle with himself, "Saber Abdullah" is immersed in a deep internal conflict between the choice to stay and leave, as those nightmares creep into his mind like a slow poison that pushes him towards the abyss in a moment that may change his life forever.

Al-Fareej Instagram is a comedy play

Khaled, a Saudi young man, travels to Kyrgyzstan to study medicine. After contracting an illness, he begins seeing a child that no one else can see. Accused of kidnapping children by the state, Khaled must race against time to prove his innocence.

Searching for a friend, a lonely driver becomes desperate.

Osama, a 25-year-old, isolates himself in darkness for months, battling mental turmoil. One day, an unexpected event leads him to open his window, where he sees his friends smiling with paintbrushes. A mysterious figure suddenly appears, pulling him into a surreal world filled with his own emotions and memories.

The story of a young Saudi man who returns from scholarship to find that his family is not the same as he left them.

While documenting the streets of Al-Muhammadiyyah in Jeddah, a Filipino expat unexpectedly unveiled his relationship with the place and his peculiar kinship with the community cats in the neighborhood.

It tells the story of Indian shawarma chef, Nooruddin Ismail, who spent 48 years in the same place and the same profession.

A rural villager, RIPON is surprised anyone would send him a package. he opens it, shocked to find the Courier has delivered a box full of garbage he recognizes as items he had discarded into the river Surma during his wedding celebration.

A self-portrait and a tribute to the director’s daughter—in landscape form.

Short educational film about how Saudi Arabia preserves, draws, and conserves water.

A girl embarks on a quest to find a swing that lives in her father's stories.

One evening, a young man falls into a depressive state. Non-narrative art story that demonstrates the beauty of gloomy moods to the viewer. Doomsday poetry.

Majed explores his struggle with an unwanted malicious entity that unexpectedly comes into his life – an unbearable noise that afflicts his hitherto everyday existence - and his ultimate acceptance of their co-existence.

A story about the unexpected meeting of the Bedouin guy Amir and the Jewish girl Alice in the nighttime, in a gas station in the middle of the desert, which shatters at dawn.

Two Friends living on the Lebanese Palestinian borders, spending a normal day by the beach, spot a foreigner girl taking a picture of them with her camera, they both decide to confiscate her film camera and keep her as hostage.

A man tries to transform his house into a theater.