Discoveries from Saudi Arabia World Cinema

This portrait of famed Armenian-Egyptian studio photographer Van Leo, whose career spanned some 50 years, is also a reflection on transformations in the practice of photography, from hand-developing to digital manipulation. As Zaatari puts it, "Van Leo used photography to display multiple images of himself, assuming different identities. At a time when nationalism was rising in Egypt, Van Leo was plotting, encouraging, and promoting multiple subjectivities.”

This film presents the stories of five different Lebanese families with no connection other than their suffering with the nationality law.

Wissam is a wealthy young man who does not believe in the idea of love at all, and the fact that most of his wealth from the sale of losers or those suffering from financial problems, and accidentally recognizes a waitress working in a bar and trying to make money from courtesy customers, Wissam believes she is a saleswoman, and offers to accompany him In a group of his own business meetings for a whole month.

The film depicts children trying to create space for them in a city that lacks space for fun, creating their own playground on the streets.

Magdy travels to Ezbet El Basha in El Borlos to sell the piece of land he inherited and his brothers after his father's death, to discover that the town is controlled by Hajj Radwan, a member of the Socialist Union, who controls its people and persecutes Farida to sell its land to him.

Hassan El Raddad Dalia Mostafa Nasser Saif Meet Souidan Midhat Takha Subhi Khalil

A cynical play has a clear projection of all the political and economic conditions in Egypt, by recounting the story of the great trader who his sons are trying to exploit. He seeks to explain that values and ethics are more important than money.

Salma Shamel’s Those That Tremble as if They Were Mad is a wry lamentation of a future not grasped. In the aftermath of Egypt’s 2011 revolution a government committee was set up to compile an archive of the revolution’s events, only to be dissolved following a coup. Through a parade of the committee’s ephemera of CD-ROMs, certificates and contracts, Those That Tremble mourns what could have been, to a soundscape of mass distress.

Not long after Nasser sets out with his adolescent son to attend a wedding he finds out that his father is dying. Unfavourable circumstances not only affect the original purpose of their trip but also begin to impact the relationship between Nasser and his son, Waleed. Indeed, the interaction with their relatives exposes a serious underlying problem: much to his father’s disapproval, Waleed doesn’t identify with the strong traditions that have been upheld for generations. Through its story of a family encounter the film adopts a realistic approach to gradually uncover the divide between the rural community and the more liberal-minded inhabitants of Riyadh. In so doing the work presents a critique of deeply rooted Islamic customs and seeks to establish the extent to which patriarchy determines paternal love.

Past and present for lover man

One day on the phone between Beirut and Paris, my mother told me: Your father has serious financial problems, he must sell his school, he has no choice, the banks have no mercy. I heard the loss. I reeled. I have always been the daughter of the principal of The Lebanese Rabia school and I do not imagine it otherwise. I decided to go back home.

"The Pianist of Yarmouk" tells the story of Aeham Ahmad: a classically-trained musician attempting to escape the war in Syria for safety in Europe.

Broken Record is a poetic journey through Iraq in search of an Iraqi/Turkman song, which the filmmaker Parine Jaddo’s mother used to sing, and recorded with her brothers in 1960. Though she knows the melody, she no longer remembers the lyrics and her curiosity takes her around the country in search of it, giving rare insight to Iraq’s rich musical culture and heritage, much of which has been burnt and lost.

Working underground in the year before the legalization of cinema in Saudi Arabia, a team of mostly women makes its first feature film. Anonymous accounts of their experience are brought together in a melancholic narration. In the spirit of first films, a filmmaker documents the production in Jeddah with his first video camera from childhood.

Crime film.

When a blind mother accidentally dies, her family tries to uncover her secret past during the traditional 3-day funeral.

An elderly man enters a photo studio and asks the photographer for a curious service. The reaction of the latter will determine their perception of each other...

The film depicts the last days of eastern Aleppo’s siege. Just before its fall, Milad Amin, residing in Beirut, follows up with his friend Ghith, an activist and photographer, who like so many other civilians still remains in the besieged city. Following Ghith via his camera through the ruins of the city, we hear the two friends talk about people’s situations while waiting for their fate amidst the fighting parties. The film is an intimate and personal recording of civilians’ sufferings during this time of siege, hunger, and war – and a recording of both the relationship of activists brought together during the civil movements and of the geographic distances that separate them due to violence, bombing, and killing.

The life of St. Anastasia of Alexandria

An old image of Bobby Anderson and Lev Olman from Ingmar Bergman's Sweedish film Persona adhering to a bottle of Shampoo tells a tale of pent-up dreams through an adventure to find answers in Cairo today.

Selma has just graduated from high school and contemplates her future. Ouaffae, her mother, wants to get a divorce. Both mother and daughter have important choices to make.

Silence is the only sound in the city of Ghabra. Any form of expression is met by death. Chadi Aoun's animated short exposes the secret codes of silent creative resistance in the authoritarian darkness of a dysfunctional society.

This is the story of a loving couple reunited during the Indochina War who are experiencing a dilemma between the call of the country and that of the heart.

The All-Hearing shows two local sheikhs delivering sermons on noise pollution in Cairo at the artist’s request. This unorthodox intervention into the sonic landscape of the ‘loudest city on Earth’ followed on from the military regime’s attempts to restrict such sermons to government-sanctioned topics (that week, the Prophet’s Ascension to Heaven). Cutting between close-ups of the sheikhs’ idiosyncratic addresses and wide shots of their congregations and the loudspeakers amplifying their voices in the streets outside, Abu Hamdan’s images show how the sheikhs’ message is disseminated in a way that contradicts its content.

Streets of Jeddah.

This film illustrates the lives of children growing up in the area of Hajar al-Aswad (Black Stone), a poor district of Damascus. The four children in the film collect metal scraps to sell in order to help sustain their families economically, yet their wanderings give them the ability to explore and dream.

A tormented young man constructs an ingenious devise to rescue his father from Abu Ghraib prison. What he finds there is far from his expectations, revealing the mistreatment and torture of prisoners. His hopes and dreams for a brighter future are dashed upon finding his father.

The population of Saraqeb in Syria expresses the ongoing misery in their country and the changes after the revolution through graffiti. The walls are the basis for their existence, providing protection from outside violence. They also bear the names of martyrs, common expressions, poetry, revolutionary slogans and other graffiti. The documentary Lovers' Notebooks was shot over three years and is the first film by Saraqeb inhabitant and media activist Eyad Aljarod who directed it with Canadian-Syrian Aliaa Khachouk. The film reveals the constant tension between the revolt-sparked energy and a sense of despair, between leaving a place and the decision to return, between the euphoria about the beauty of an image and the fear of war. During the film and during the night, the walls of Saraqeb are filled with text like a lover's notebook.

People search for unspoken or even absolute truths when it comes to the notions of life and death. Fertility is associated with the miracle of creation, but for countless women around the world it is not necessarily a happy subject. MOTHER OF THE UNBORN looks compassionately at this deeply felt experience.

When Meshari reunites with his former friends, he learns they’ve stolen a car, unaware that it belongs to his father.

Shot quickly in a break of film shooting

After surviving five days beneath the rubble of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake, eight-year-old Rital is left to rebuild a life shaped by loss, memory, and survival. Born to a Syrian family that sought refuge in Hatay, Turkey during the war, Rital lost her parents and siblings when the earthquake struck near the city in February 2023. 7.8 Richter follows her life after the disaster, through the small details of how a child continues living after the ground beneath her world collapses. Now on YouTube.

When a man wakes to find his kitchen in ruins, he sets up cameras to catch the culprit, only to discover a shocking truth about himself.

After being falsely accused of theft, Kharfoush flees his village, becoming an outcast with nothing left to lose. Along the way, he meets Abu Hanshal, a cunning drifter with his own troubled past. Together, they uncover a gang behind the stolen gold, and guided by Sheikh Jarrah, set out on a dangerous journey to recover it and clear Kharfoush’s name.

A heist leads two guys to a place they can't come back from

The story revolves around Dr. Waleed, a successful cosmetic surgeon, who returns from a trip to discover that his suitcase has been switched with a mysterious one belonging to someone else. From here begins a series of surprises and problems that threaten his reputation and his family, as he tries to understand the reason behind this switch And to find the real owner of the bag to restore his normal life.

Three friends attempt to steal a prize necklace from a wealthy business leader before finding themselves in prison.

------------------------

Amidst the silent aisles and book-lined walls of the library, Asser finds himself alone, confronting a critical gap in documentation. He faces an inner struggle: cling to hope, or surrender to the permanent loss of his father's legacy? That is, until an unexpected opportunity arises, shifting the entire course of his search.

Tasked with finding his grandfather's hidden legacy, Faris battles ruthless villains and deadly odds to uncover a secret worth dying for.

From Shahryar's hall to fantasy realms, legends will gather to face destiny.

Following a shrimp seller from his dawn start at the Al Jubail market to his home in Safwa, this film explores his daily hustle and the personal stories that shaped his resilience and craft.

Scream is a family drama play.

Message Of Al Hussain is a tragic historical play

Dream Of The Sands is a tragic historical play