Moumen Smihi
, 2005
, 83 min
Synopsis: This film, the first in what has become a kind of semi-autobiographical trilogy for Smihi, follows the everyday experiences of a young, timid, pre-teen, boy, Mohamed-Larbi Salmi, who grows up trying to make sense of the gentle religious upbringing of his father, the secular education offered him in French school, and his budding desires for…
, 1971
, 16 min
Synopsis: Shot in Paris after Smihi completed film school, Si Moh, the Unlucky Man is an investigation of the life of migrant workers in France. Connected to the Maghreb by postcards and to his fellow migrants by shared experiences of alienation, the character Simoh negotiates the industrialized suburbs of Paris as the subject of his intimate camera. Smihi’s…
Ossama Mohammed
, 2014
, 94 min
Synopsis: In Syria, every day, YouTubers film then die; others kill then film. In Paris, driven by my inexhaustible love for Syria, I find that I can only film the sky and edit the footage posted. From within the tension between my estrangement in France and the revolution, an encounter happened. A young Kurdish woman from…
Mona Benyamin
, 2020
, 17 min
Synopsis: Moonscape is a short film that takes the form of a music video for a ballad/middle-of-the-road song, performed as a duet between a male and female singer, in Arabic. The song traces the story of a man called Dennis M. Hope, who claimed ownership of the Moon in 1980 and thus founded the Lunar Embassy…
Emily Jacir
, 2019
, 43 min
Synopsis: A close friend is asked to start an investigation before an inevitable act occurs. Interlacing images, textures, movements, traces and sounds of over a century, letter to a friend recounts in minute detail a home and street in Bethlehem.
Akram Zaatari
, 2011
, 12 min
Synopsis; An intense conversation between two people one evening leads to a pictorial love story about loss and longing. An homage to Eric Rohmer and the attention he paid to the tiny details of everyday life. An eternal story of love and separation.
Sara Sadik
, 2021
“A character study animated entirely within the Grand Theft Auto V video game, KHTOBTOGONE begins as a love story between protagonist Zine and the girl of his dreams, Bulma. But in introspective narration, Zine reflects more broadly on masculinity and coming of age in Marseille’s Maghrebi community. Inspired by the experiences of her male friends from southern…
Mary Jirmanus Saba
, 2017
, 99 min
In her directorial debut, Mary Jirmanus Saba deals with a forgotten revolution, saving from oblivion bloodily suppressed strikes at Lebanese tobacco and chocolate factories. These events from the 1970s, which held the promise of a popular revolution and, with it, of women’s emancipation, were erased from collective memory by the country’s civil wars. Rich in…
Meriem Bennani
, 19 min
A playful and moving portrait of some women in Morocco. Evoking reality television, home video, and ethnographic film, its visual language is at once intimate and whimsical, with the director’s digital manipulations by turns amplifying and undermining her subjects’ self-presentations. Bennani’s women discuss love and romance, dating and friendship, loneliness and community, all set against…
Assia Djebar
, 1977
, 115 min
“This classic film from acclaimed novelist and filmmaker Assia Djebar is essential viewing for an understanding of women in Algeria. Taking its title and structure from the ‘Nouba,’ a traditional song of five movements, this haunting film mingles narrative and documentary styles to document the creation of women’s personal and cultural histories. Returning to her…
