TAFF2020 Background

2020 FESTIVAL//مهرجان ٢٠٢٠

PROGRAMME//برنامج

Toronto Arab Film Logo
  • TAFF2020: Launch Party

    Postponed due to COVID-19

    April 9, 2020
    7:30 pm EDT
    Hale Coffee, 300 Campbell Ave Unit, Toronto, ON M6P 3V6

    An evening of food, entertainment and mingling with film lovers and industry professionals to celebrate the launch of the inaugural Toronto Arab Film Festival.


  • TAFF2020: Screening “Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم”

    Postponed due to COVID-19.

    April 23, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Screening:

    Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم
    • Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Hinde Boujemaa
      Length: 92 mins
      Synopsis: In the Arab world, we sing about love. From Om Kalthoum to Berber songs, women and men sing of love: its griefs and jealousies, its joys and hopes and romance. But when it comes to the embodiment of this love, the enactment of desire, taboo raises its head and love becomes a sin. With her abusive husband in jail and a coveted divorce pending, hardworking Noura can almost grasp a happy, new life with lover Lassaad – but when the best-laid plans are upended, Noura must tap her unshakable will to fulfill her dream.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo

  • TAFF2020: Opening Night + Iftar

    Postponed due to COVID-19

    April 23, 2020
    8:30 pm EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for an informal meet and greet Iftar following the opening night screening.


  • TAFF2020: Accessing the Canadian Film Industry

    Postponed due to COVID-19

    April 25, 2020
    10:00 am EDT
    Trinity Square Video, 401 Richmond Street, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

    A primer workshop for creatives interested in accessing the Canadian film industry. The workshop will cover an introduction of filmmaking, production resources and a presentation by ACTRA. 

    Sponsored by:

    ACTRA Logo
    TSV Logo

  • TAFF2020: Bazaar

    Postponed due to COVID-19

    April 26, 2020
    4:00 pm EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Join us for a market showcasing local vendor arts and crafts.


  • TAFF2020: Closing Night Party

    Postponed due to COVID-19

    April 26, 2020
    8:30 pm EST
    Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2R4

    Join us for the closing night party and awards ceremony.


  • TAFF2020: Screening “Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa”

    Postponed due to COVID-19.

    April 26, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screening:

    Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa
    • Flesh Out//Il Corpo Della Sposa

      Country: Italy
      Director: Michela Occhipinti
      Length: 94 mins
      Synopsis: Verida is due to marry in three months; the marriage has been arranged by her loving parents. According to a tradition still practiced in Mauritania that adheres to accepted standards of beauty, she has to gain weight to attain the kind of well-rounded, fuller figure that will appeal to her future husband. Three months before her marriage, her routine unfolds quietly and steadily as she sets about consuming no fewer than six meals per day and regularly weighing herself to assess her progress. An obedient daughter, she does not for one moment question the goal of twenty kilos her mother has set for her; nor does she put up much resistance to being woken up in the middle of the night to eat one more bowl of milk and another of couscous. But the process gets harder as it progresses and this puts an increasing strain on her, both physically and emotionally. Verida, who has in the meantime attracted the attentions of another man, begins to ask herself if this is what she really wants. Based on actual events, Michela Occhipinti’s feature debut is a meticulous and gentle observation of the polarising tensions that permeate the modern female experience in twenty-first century Mauritania.


  • Mokhtabar//مختبر: Short Film Screenings + Panel on “Place Attachment”

    July 11, 2020
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of Short Films followed by a panel on “Place Attachment”.

    Screenings:

    Fragments
    • Fragments

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Ghassen Chraifa
      Length: 7 mins
      Synopsis: Life comes as a continuous race against time where everything is programmed in advance. Everything is tied up in a defined chronological order and we are just running to catch up. What would happen if we decide to take a break, if we feel how the present moment goes by?

    Tawargit
    • Tawargit

      Country: Morocco
      Director: Karim Barka
      Length: 3 mins
      Synopsis: A video take of a shadow of young fisherman from the Atlantic coast as a creature from another world. In seeing his shadow in the water, he imagines himself as a fish traveling through water to be wherever he wants.

    Un Passage entre Deux Points
    • Un Passage entre Deux Points

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Lamis Souliman
      Length: 10 mins
      Synopsis: In a confrontation structure between emotional and spatial alienation, out of a party full with tipsy attendees, an alienated girl fleeing through a path hidden between two stopped points in ‘Time’. She takes her journey moving on the very fine line between the outer reality and a parallel universe. Through the mental sounds and expressive movements of a girl who travels in a circular path between the real world and the self-realm, the film embodies images of optional and compulsory isolation within the life of an expatriate person, in deconstructing for the meanings of fulfilled existence and residential affiliation

    All Come From Dust//من طين
    • All Come From Dust//من طين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Younes Ben Slimane
      Length: 9 mins
      Synopsis: A loop of edgeless bend. You were its doom, he was its bloom. You were its tomb, he was its womb. For Heaven and Hell, were words made of fum.

    April 21//٢١ نيسان
    • April 21//٢١ نيسان

      Country: Syria
      Director: Houssam Jlelati
      Length: 3 mins
      Synopsis: During the ongoing war in Syria, and the outbreak of coronavirus disease which resulted in a global quarantine, there are some ideas to get rid of all this noise.

    Summer 2006
    • Summer 2006

      Country: Czech Republic
      Director: Farah Abou Kharroub
      Length
      : 7 mins
      Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Farah filmed a bomb as it hit Beirut’s airport. Her father filmed the years of fighting in Lebanon every day as a war reporter. Images of the city at war are mixed with images of household peace from Farah’s childhood. This collage, created from footage shot by father and daughter, reveals the unbearable length of a conflict that affected two generations.

    Panel:

    Place Attachment
    Watch

    Our awareness of a surrounding environment, context or space, impacts our idea of identity as individuals, which we translate into materiality. Living within the parameters of a built environment over a stretch of time, we start to observe details and nuances that may have never otherwise caught our attention.

    Moderators:

    Fatma Hendawy
    • Fatma Hendawy Yehia

      Fatma Hendawy Yehia is an Egyptian-Canadian curator, based in Toronto since 2017. Yehia graduated in 2020 from the Master of Visual Studies Curatorial program at university of Toronto. Since 2008, Yehia held different positions at the New Library of Alexandria including Head of Permanent Exhibitions (2010-12). She was the Assistant Curator at the AGYU, Toronto (2021-22). She was Guest Curator at Images Festival 2022, and currently she works as Assistant Archivist at the Art Museum, University of Toronto. Yehia participated in curatorial workshops (including Tate Intensive 2017), residencies (ProHelvetia and ZKU/Berlin) and curated several projects in Egypt, UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Canada. Her curatorial practice focuses on investigating censored archives, questioning inaccessible histories, and navigating militarised spaces.

    Lamis Haggag
    • Lamis Haggag

      Lamis Haggag is an Egyptian multimedia artist, living and working between Cairo and Toronto. She received her MFA from The University of Calgary in 2013 and her BFA from Helwan University, Cairo in 2008. She participated in exhibitions and residencies in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, St. Thomas Ontario, Cairo, Beijing, Dakar, Lagos, Berlin, Incheon and Aswan.

      In addition to her art practice, Haggag is an art instructor, installer and proposal writer. She received various grants and scholarships in Canada from CCA, TAC, OAC, AFA, Interaccess Artist-run Center and the University of Calgary.  Haggag is also the recipient of awards and grants from the Goethe Institute in Lagos, the Goethe Institute in Cairo, Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (IFAC) in Incheon, Al Mawred Al Thaqafy for the Arab region, Kamel Lazaar Foundation in Tunisia and various awards from the Ministry of culture in Egypt.

    Speakers:

    May Telmissany, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Ottawa
    • May Telmissany

      May Telmissany is Associate professor of Cinema and Arabic Studies in the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa. She is the former Director of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and founder of the Arab Canadian Studies Research Group (ACANS). She is an established novelist and columnist as well as the author of numerous academic books including La Hara dans le Cinéma Egyptien. Popular neighborhood and national identity, and Counterpoints. Edward Said’s Legacy. Her scholarly articles are published in English, French and Arabic in France, the UK, the USA, Canada, and Egypt.

      Telmissany’s research spans a variety of topics in media and film theories including the representation of the popular neighborhood in cinema, the emergence of minor cinemas and women transnational filmmaking, the political contributions of the diasporic women intellectuals during and after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and the impact of SVOD platforms on Arab countries and the Francophonie.

      As a novelist, she published four novels and four short stories collections many of which were translated into several languages.

      Telmissany won two literary awards, in Egypt and in France, and was recently awarded the prestigious medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, in recognition of her literary and academic achievements.

    Chantal Partamian, Filmmaker
    • Chantal Partamian

      Chantal Partamian is a filmmaker and archivist primarily focused on working with super 8mm and found footage. Partamian’s films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals and are distributed by Vidéographe, Groupe intervention Vidéo (GIV), and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center.

      In her capacity as an archivist, she dedicates herself to preserving and restoring reels from the Mediterranean region while conducting research on archival practices in conflict areas. Her written works are predominantly featured in the revue Hors-Champs.

    Younes Ben Slimane, Filmmaker
    • Younes Ben Slimane

      Younes Ben Slimane is a tunisian artist and filmmaker.

      His architectural background has a major influence on his approach as an artist. Working through film, video, photography, drawing and installation, he establishes a permanent dialogue between architecture and visual arts, where different mediums coexist and reflect each other potentialities and limitations.

      Younes completed post-graduates studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (FR) . His work has been exhibited at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Institut du monde arabe  in Paris (FR), at the Mucem in Marseille (FR), at the Selma Feriani Gallery in Sidi Bou Saïd (TN), and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje (MK).

      His films have been selected in international festivals such as Locarno Film Festival (CH) and CPH:DOX (DK). He has received the Tanit d’or at the Carthage Film Festival (TN) and the Studio Collector Prize (FR).

    Co-presented with La Boite

    La Boite Logo

  • TAFF2020: Screening “Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار” + Panel on “Reviving the Arts in Sudan”

    Event Details
    July 24, 2020
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of “Talking About Trees” followed by a Panel Discussion titled “Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan” featuring speakers Nehal El-Hadi, Mr. Mohamed Wahbi and Mazin Osman, moderated by Iman Abbaro.

    Screening:

    Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار
    • Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار

      Country: Sudan, France, Chad, Germany, Qatar  
      Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari
      Length: 94 mins
      Synopsis: Four older Sudanese filmmakers with passion for film battle to bring cinema-going back to Sudan, not without resistance. Their ‘Sudanese Film Club’ have decided to revive an old cinema, and again draw attention to Sudanese film history. The film intermittently weaves in clips from their films, many which were lost or banned due to their political leanings. 

    Panel:

    Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan
    Watch

    After having witnessed the history of cinema in Sudan in TALKING ABOUT TREES, motivated by the unwavering determination of these four filmmakers, this panel looks forward to examine the role of film and arts in the rebuilding of Sudan. Film in particular holds significant power in fostering community while promoting dialogue. TALKING ABOUT TREES makes us intently aware of lost potential and dreams marred and suppressed by politics and religious extremism and ultimately urges us to reconsider the importance of arts in shaping narratives about Sudan.

    Moderator: Iman Abbaro

    Speakers:

    Nehal El-Hadi, Writer, Researcher, Editor
    • Nehal El-Hadi

      Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).

      She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.

      As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.

      Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.

      Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.

      Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.

      Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.

    Mr. Mohamed Wahbi
    Mazin Osman, Cultural Curator

  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 1

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    4:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our first Shorts Programme at TAFF2020.

    Screenings:

    The Sparrow//العصفور
    • The Sparrow//العصفور

      Countries: Palestine, Austria 
      Director: Nasri Hajaj 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Based on true stories, The Sparrow, tells a story of life under dictatorship which can be anywhere and anytime. An Arab intellectual has been imprisoned for many years. One night while serving his unlimited period he is asked by the prison warden to tell stories to a five-year-old child in one of the neighboring cells. There he meets the mother of the child, born in prison. Meant to be a perfidious torture by the prison warden, he faces the challenge of how to tell a story to a child that has never seen the sun.

    In Uncle Salem’s Country
    • In Uncle Salem’s Country

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Slim Belhiba 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Tunisia, September 2013. There is only a fortnight left before the beginning of the school year. Uncle Salem, guardian of a small country school, begins rudimentary maintenance. Anxious about the state of the flag, he decides to go for a new one. Uncle Salem moves towards the city, where the reverberations of a betrayed revolution run through the minds and streets.

    The Old Kalbelouz
    • The Old Kalbelouz

      Country: Algeria
      Director: Imène Ayadi  
      Length: 10 mins
      Synopsis:In Algiers, Ahmed 70 years old wakes up alone at home, he will start a day immersed in his thoughts. Who is he talking to?

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى
    • Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى

      Countries: Iraq, United Kingdom
      Director: Ashtar Al Khirsan 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: Haunted by the memories of his childhood in Baghdad, Abdullah has dementia and struggles to communicate with his daughter. As his mind slips and slides between his past and his unfamiliar present, he no longer remembers the life he’s lived in London for the last 60 years and the fluent English language he’s spoken. His British born daughter Leilah, who speaks only English, searches for one last moment of connection

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Co-presented by: 

    LIFT logo

  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 2 + Panel on “Defying Politics and Pan-Arabism in Cinema”

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our second Shorts Programme followed by a Panel Discussion on titled “Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema” featuring speakers Walid El-Kachab, Christina Piovesan and Viviane Saglier, moderated by Karam Masri.

    Screenings:

    Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس
    • Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس

      Country: Canada, Lebanon 
      Director: Nour Ouayda 
      Length: 17 mins 
      Synopsis: You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.

    In the Middle//في المنتصف
    • In the Middle//في المنتصف

      Country: Yemen, Qatar, Russia
      Director: Mariam Al Dhubhani 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: In a rarely seen perspective of war, we follow Ali—a Yemeni soldier on tour in the temporary capital of Aden. Leaving his hopes, dreams, and education behind to join the military, Ali dutifully sits at his checkpoint, performing a mundane task that he is clearly overqualified to do. His story represents the majority of youth in the country, people who are unable to just ‘live’, but instead are forced to continually struggle to survive.

    Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا
    • Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا

      Country: Syria, Germany 
      Director: Waref Abo Qaba
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Syrian history has been multicultural for centuries. This film is a voyage through Syrian culture until today’s insanity. It is a message of peace and hope for the Syrian people.

    The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس
    • The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Essa Grayeb 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: On June 9, 1967, Egyptian President at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser appeared on television and radio to inform the Egyptian citizens of their country’s defeat. During the speech, he also announced his resignation. For many, Nasser’s speech was the first hint at the full scope of loss and disillusionment with the pan-Arab vision he led. The film weaves together dozens of scenes that feature the speech from Egyptian films and television series produced between 1972-2016. The found footage excerpts were edited to reconstruct Nasser’s speech of resignation according to the original text.

    Compressed//مضغوط
    • Compressed//مضغوط

      Country: Syria, France 
      Director: Ali Dawwa 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: Compressed highlights the work of Khaled Dawwa, a Syrian artist, who was in one of the Syrian regime’s prisons. He met many young people in the prison, their only guilt and the great crime was that they had dreamed of, and asked for a better future. Released from prison, Khaled, now lives in France. He considers himself a hope for all those who are still in prison and expresses their voice and suffering through his sculptures. For Khaled, love and revolution are inseparable.

    I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء
    • I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء

      Country: Syria, Sweden 
      Director: Yasser Kassab 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: After talking about the end of the war in Syria and the start of the reconstruction phase, Yaser and his family find themselves compelled to deal with the transfer of graves from public parks in Aleppo. Thousands of kilometers separate Yaser from his parents in Aleppo. With what these two places carry of contradiction is reflecting the way they both deal with what happened.

    Panel:

    Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema

    Given the recent new wave of Arab cinema, bolstered by co-productions and initiatives around the world, particularly in film festivals, this panel aims to examine the recent wave of Arab films in international film festivals through the lens of a pan-Arab renaissance. Recent co-production initiatives, transnational talent development and pan-Arab distribution, in particular, are defying national borders and are reinvigorating and redefining preconceived notions of what constitutes Arab cinema.

    Watch

    Moderator:

    Karam Masri, Filmmaker
    • Karam Masri

      Karam Masri is a Program Consultant for Film & Television at Ontario Creates, the provincial agency that supports the economic development of Ontario’s cultural sectors. Prior to joining Ontario Creates, Karam was the Business Analyst at the Bell Fund, a private fund that supports the creation and development of Canadian digital/TV multi-platform projects. Karam holds two Master’s degrees: an MFA in Film Production and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business. She also wrote & directed the short film “Juha the Whale”, winner of the York Thesis prize.

    Speakers:

    Christina Piovesan, Producer & President of First Generation Films
    • Christina Piovesan

      Christina Piovesan is the founder and principal of First Generation Films, a film and tv production company based in Toronto. Past films include the Cannes Winner Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis; The Whistleblower directed by Larysa Kondracki, Mouthpiece directed by Patricia Rozema, Paper Year, written and directed by Rebecca Addelman and American Woman directed by Semi Chellas which had its Canadian premiere as a Gala Presentation at TIFF 2019. Her collaboration with Elevation Productions, the production arm of Elevation Pictures, has Christina in post-production on The Exchange directed by Dan Mazer and French Exit directed by Azazel Jacobs. Most recently, Christina was producer on The Nest directed by Sean Durkin which had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival

    Dr. Walid El Kachab, Associate Professor, Arabic Studies, York University
    • Walid El Khachab

      Walid El Khachab has published in Cairo four poetry collections in Arabic: The Dead do not consume (Al Mawta La Yastahlekoon, 2001); She who is (Allati, 2013); Sudden Moon (Qamar Mofajei’, 2015), I’timad’s Booth (Koshk I’timad, 2019). In 2022, his monograph about legendary Arab comedian Fuad al-Mohandes The Arachitect of Joy (Mohandes al Bahga) was released at Dar al Maraya publishing house, Cairo. He also translated into Arabic Canadian poet’s Mon Latif Ghattas collection, Les Chants du Karawan, and Canadian poetry theorist Paul Zumthor’s Introduction à la poésie orale. He teaches Arabic Studies at York University

    Dr. Viviane Saglier, Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University
    • Viviane Saglier

      Viviane Saglier is a UTSC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Prior to that, she was an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology Department at McGill University. She received her PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies from Concordia University. She is currently working on two projects: a first book on Palestinian film infrastructures, and a second book on histories of Arab cinema, gender, and decolonization. Her writings on Arab cinema, postcolonial theory, media economies, and transnational solidarity have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. Outside of the university, she curates collective programs of Arab cinema and political documentaries as well as video art exhibitions. 

      She started the Works-in-Progress (WIP) series and co-led the Political Imaginaries of Waiting working group.

    Panel Sponsored by:

    Faculty Arts & Science - U of T Logo
    Innis College Logo

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo
    RPFF logo

  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 3

    Event Details
    July 26, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our third Shorts Programme at TAFF2020

    Screenings

    Sh’hab//شهاب
    • Sh’hab//شهاب

      Country: Qatar
      Length: 13 min
      Director: Amal Al-Muftah
      Synopsis: Upon hearing a myth about falling stars, a young girl’s curiosity is sparked. When night falls on the village of AlWakrah, she sets out on her father’s boat, with the assistance of her older brother, to chase the fabled comets.

    Left Right//يسار يمين
    • Left Right//يسار يمين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Moutii Dridi
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Yassine, 7 years old, left handed, his father is forcing him to use his right hand.

    Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف
    • Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف

      Country: Qatar 
      Director: Mahdi Ali 
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A professional Qatari photographer is intrigued by the rebellion of a teenage girl from her conservative family as they take pictures of the frescoes in a cultural village. She pursues the teenage girl, documenting her rebellion until the family rebukes her. After discovering the girl’s hideout, the photographer follows her into an amphitheater, where she finally has a chance to express her inner voice.

    Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا
    • Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا

      Countries: Palestine, Germany 
      Director: Firas Khoury 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: During the 1990 World Cup, two young Palestinian boys are looking for “Maradona’s legs”; the last missing sticker that they need in order to complete their world cup album and win a free Atari. ​

    I Am Fatou
    • I Am Fatou

      Country: Egypt, Italy, Germany 
      Director: Amir Ramadan 
      Length: 18 mins 
      Synopsis: Fatou is a 23-year-old Italian girl of Senegalese origin. She lives in a suburb of Rome with her mother who would like to educate according to the rigid impositions of her culture of origin. But Fatou is looking for his own identity that combines her black Muslim being with Italian society, and unlike most of her peers, the social stigma of the immigrant is imprinted on her, that isolates her and reduces her friendships with other young children of foreigners. Her authentic passion and screen against prejudice is singing: music is what will never betray herself. After a night at the disco, Fatou is attacked by a thirty year old Italian who first insults her, and then tries to physically mistreat her. She confronts him with courage, opposes him, and finally manages to get on the bus that takes her back to her neighbourhood. In the short walk home, Fatou finds the strength to break the fear and humiliation with the song. An intimate nocturnal song in which Fatou tells herself, in the silence of the sleeping city, expressing his dreams as a girl, the hope of a radiant life that is perhaps already waiting for her. Fatou says she does not know love, if not in her mother’s feelings, she sings about the possibility of love, which means first of all to love oneself. And its poetic momentum becomes universal reflection on the sense of identity, so longed for and, for many, never really possessed.

    Ambiance//امبيانس
    • Ambiance//امبيانس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Wisam Al Jafari 
      Length: 15 mins 
      Synopsis: Despite the noise and chaos of the refugee camp, two young Palestinian refugees discover a creative way to record music in order to meet a competition deadline.

    Roujoula//رجولة
    • Roujoula//رجولة

      Country: France, Morocco 
      Length: 22 min 
      Director: Ilias El Faris
      Synopsis: In Casablanca, Eid-Al-Adha is around the corner. Imad, who sells hacked DVDs in the streets, doesn’t manage to earn enough money to buy the sacrificial sheep. The perfect excuse to take advantage of his studious little brother, forcing him to become a parking attendant, not realizing that he is giving Fayçal the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge.

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo