MENA films
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- DirectorShira GeffenEtgar KeretStarsSarah AdlerNikol LeidmanGera SandlerMeduzot (the Hebrew word for Jellyfish) tells the story of three very different Israeli women living in Tel Aviv whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a young child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a young bride who breaks her leg in trying to escape from a locked toilet stall, which ruins her chance at a romantic honeymoon in the Caribbean. One of the guests is Joy, a Philippine chore woman attending the event with her employer, and who doesn't speak any Hebrew (she communicates mainly in English), and who is guilt-ridden after having left her young son behind in the Philippines.
- DirectorLeyla BouzidStarsBaya MedhaffarGhalia BenaliMontassar AyariA few months before the revolution in Tunisia, 18 year-old Farah has a passion for life and sings in a political rock band. Her mother, knowing the dangers of Tunisia, wants her to pursue a career as a doctor.
- DirectorHaifaa Al-MansourStarsWaad MohammedReem AbdullahAbdullrahman Al GohaniAn enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
- DirectorNadine LabakiStarsClaude Baz MoussawbaaNadine LabakiYvonne MaaloufA group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsAli SulimanReymonde AmsellemEvgenia DodinaAn Palestinian surgeon living in Tel Aviv discovers a dark secret about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing.
- DirectorAna Lily AmirpourStarsSheila VandArash MarandiMarshall ManeshIn the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
- DirectorScandar CoptiYaron ShaniStarsFouad HabashNisrin SiksikElias SabaAjami is the religiously mixed community of Muslims and Christians in Tel Aviv. These are five stories about the everyday life in Ajami.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsTawfeek BarhomRazi GabareenYaël AbecassisA Palestinian-Israeli boy named Eyad is sent to a prestigious boarding school in Jerusalem, where he struggles with issues of language, culture, and identity.
- DirectorSamuel MaozStarsYoav DonatItay TiranOshri CohenDuring the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.
- DirectorYuval AdlerStarsTsahi HaleviShadi Mar'iHitham OmariTells the story of the complex relationship between an Israeli Secret Service officer and his teenage Palestinian informant. Shuttling back and forth between conflicting points of view, the film is a raw portrayal of characters torn apart by competing loyalties and impossible moral dilemmas, giving an unparalleled glimpse into the dark and fascinating world of human intelligence.
- DirectorYariv MozerStarsYoav ReuveniYehuda Nahari HaleviYariv MozerTel Aviv, Summer 1989. Boaz, a beautiful and alluring linguistics student, receives anonymous, male-written love letters that undermine his sexual identity and interfere with his peaceful life with his beloved girlfriend.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorMai MasriStarsMaisa Abd ElhadiNadira OmranRakeen SaadA young Palestinian schoolteacher gives birth to her son in an Israeli prison where she fights to protect him, survive and maintain hope.
- DirectorMichel KhleifiStarsMohamad Ali El AkiliBushra KaramanMakram KhouryA Palestinian seeks Israeli permission to waive curfew to give his son a fine wedding. The military governor's condition is that he and his officers attend. The groom berates his father for agreeing. Women ritually prepare the bride; men prepare the groom. Guests gather. The Palestinian youths plot violence. One Israeli officer swoons in the heat and Palestinian women take her into the cool house. A thoroughbred gets loose and runs to a mined field; soldiers and Palestinians must cooperate to rescue it. As darkness falls, tensions between army and villagers rise, and the groom's wedding-night anger and impotence threaten family dignity and honor. Can cool heads prevail?
- DirectorSuha ArrafStarsNisreen FaourUla TabariCherien DabisThree unmarried aristocratic Christian sisters from Ramallah have shut themselves in their villa clinging desperately to their former glory, until their orphan niece, Badia, walks into their life and turns their world upside down
- DirectorAnnemarie JacirStarsSuheir HammadSaleh BakriRiyad IdeisA romantic drama about a working-class woman and her experiences traveling back home.
- DirectorNajwa NajjarStarsAshraf FarahAli SulimanHiam AbbassA free spirited Palestinian dancer becomes the wife of a prisoner.
- DirectorRashid MasharawiStarsMahmoud Abu JaziSalah HanounRamzi MaqdisiTwo Palestinian brothers plan on immigrating to Canada after the Israeli air force bombs their family home. Milad (Stereo) used to be a wedding singer but because his wife dies in the attack he doesn't want to live in palestine or sing anymore. The bombing also leaves his brother Samy mute and deaf. The two set about earning money for their travel to Canada by buying a secondhand sound system that they rent out for events in Ramallah.
- DirectorLeila SansourStarsLeila SansourOpen Bethlehem is a story of a homecoming to the world's most famous little town. The film spans seven momentous years in the life of Bethlehem, revealing a city of astonishing beauty and political strife under occupation.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsFreida PintoHiam AbbassWillem DafoeA drama centered on an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of Arab-Israeli war who finds herself drawn into the conflict.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsHiam AbbassRona Lipaz-MichaelAli SulimanThe story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
- DirectorRashid MasharawiStarsMohammad BakriAreen OmariNour ZoubiAbu Laila used to be a judge, but because the government doesn't have the means to renew his assignment he is forced to be a taxi driver. On the day his daughter Laila becomes seven years old his wife insists that he'll be at home early and bring her a present and a cake. Abu Laila's has nothing else on his mind then completing this mission. But the daily life in Palestine has other plans.
- DirectorUdi AloniStarsTamer NafarSamar QuptySalwa NakkaraSet against a backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian rapper Kareem and his singer girlfriend Manar struggle, love and make music in their crime-ridden ghetto and Tel Aviv's hip-hop club scene.
- DirectorRashid MasharawiStarsMohammad BakriAhmad Abu Sal'oumHiam AbbassHaifa, nicknamed after the city of his love and hope, goes around and comes around in a Palestinian refugee camp. Although he is everybody's fool, there are many things that only he knows. He is closely related to the family of Abu Said, a former policeman who gains new hopes from the political developments. Oum Said, his wife, hangs her hope on the imminent release of their eldest son, Said, from jail. She tries to find him a bride to secure things for the future. Their youngest son, Siad, is cynical and rebellious. He refuses to believe things. Sabah, the 12 year old daughter is romancing the future and wants to find out what's in it for her. The different stories are interwoven into a very timely insight into the current Palestinian mind.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsTawfeek BarhomQais AttaallahHiba AttalahMohammed Assaf, an aspiring musician living in Gaza, sets a seemingly impossible goal: to compete on the program "Arab Idol."
- DirectorElia SuleimanStarsElia SuleimanManal KhaderGeorge IbrahimSeparated by a checkpoint, Palestinian lovers from Jerusalem and Ramallah arrange clandestine meetings.
- DirectorElia SuleimanStarsElia SuleimanNazira SuleimanFuad SuleimanA Palestinian expatriate filmmaker (Elia Suleiman) documents the loss of national identity in Israel's Arab population.
- DirectorJulia BachaFollows a Palestinian leader who unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.
- DirectorRadu MihaileanuStarsLeïla BekhtiHafsia HerziHiam AbbassA comedy/drama set in a village and centered on a battle of the sexes, where women threaten to withhold sexual favors if their men refuse to fetch water from a remote well.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsShahab HosseiniTaraneh AlidoostiSahra AsadollahiWhile Ranaa and Emad, a married couple, are participating in a production of "Death of a Salesman," she is assaulted in their new home, which leaves him determined to find the perpetrator over his wife's traumatized objections.
- DirectorZabou BreitmanEléa Gobbé-MévellecStarsSimon AbkarianHiam AbbassSwann ArlaudSummer 1998, Kabul in ruins is occupied by the Taliban. In love despite the daily violence and misery, Mohsen and Zunaira want to believe in the future. But a senseless act by Mohsen will upset their lives forever.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsFarid ShawqiHind RustumYoussef ChahineA newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments.
- DirectorJan-Willem van EwijkStarsFettah LamaraThekla ReutenMohamed MajdA Moroccan fisherman sets off on an epic journey towards Europe on his wind surfboard. But the pursuit of dreams does not come without sacrifice.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
- DirectorAmber FaresThe Speed Sisters are the first all-women race car driving team in the Middle East. They're bold. They're fearless. And they're tearing up tracks all over Palestine.
- DirectorHava Kohav BellerDirected by Hava Beller an 85-year-old, female, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, whose two prior films took her each over a decade to make. This one took even longer. She has a very distinct eye and style. The film explores the ongoing Palestinian/Jewish conflict in the Middle East, it does not take the rose tinted view that "if they can build a bridge/perform a play/ work side by side in a hospital - that peace should not be impossible." This longitudinal study is a far more immersive, tough, authentic and keenly observed work than the scores we have all see before by exploring the lives of young people born into a life that is lived right on the conflict zone.
- DirectorAli AbbasiStarsAlice RahimiDiana Al HussenSoraya HelliA journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.