MOONSCAPE (2020, DCP, 17m, Palestine, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Mona Benyamin. Experimental short/Music video. Moonscape is a short film which 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––a company that sells land on a variety…

(1981, DCP, 88m, Morocco, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Ahmed El Maanouni. Documentary feature. The groundbreaking Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane is the dynamic subject of this captivating, one-of-a-kind documentary by Ahmed El Maanouni, who filmed the four musicians during a series of electrifying live performances in Tunisia, Morocco, and France; on the streets of Casablanca; and in intimate conversations. Storytellers through song and traditional instruments, and with connections to political theater, the band became a local phenomenon and an…

(2021, DCP, 90m, Syrian Arab Republic/Denmark/France/ Palestine, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Rami Farah. Documentary. Nearly 10 years after the beginning of the Syrian revolution, three Syrian activists––Yadan, Odai and Rani––reunite on a theatre stage in Paris. Through life-size projections onto a big screen, Syrian director Rami Farah confronts the three men with footage, some of it their own, depicting events that changed their destinies forever. Watching the brutal footage together, they reflect on their personal journeys, revive their collective…

BELLYDANCE VOGUE (2020, DCP, 5m, Lebanon, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Hadi Moussally. Experimental short/Music video. Hadi’s birthday landed on the 3rd of April, 2020, during lockdown, and for the first time he celebrated it all by himself. MOSS AGATE (2020, DCP, 68m, Lebanon, Arabic with French and English subtitles) dir Sélim Mourad w/Tamara Saade, François Yazbek, Elie Boudjok. Hybrid documentary. Beirut, summer 2019. The filmmaker experiences a descent into the abyss. His health is at stake and his film…

(1974, DCP, 76m, Morocco, Arabic and French with English subtitles) dir Mostafa Derkaoui. Hybrid documentary feature. First screened in Paris in 1975, the film was immediately banned, censored, and pulled from exhibition and export. In 2016, Filmoteca de Catalunya found a negative print in their archives and restored the film for circulation to audiences across the world. First screened in Paris in 1975, the film was immediately banned, censored, and pulled from exhibition and export. In 2016, Filmoteca de Catalunya…

(2020, DCP, 88m, Palestine/France/Germany/Portugal/Qatar, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Arab and Tarzan Nasser w/Salim Daw, Hiam Abbass, Maisa Abd Elhadi. Narrative feature. Gaza, today. Sixty-year-old Sherman Issa is secretly in love with Siham, a woman who works as a dressmaker at the market. Finally determined to propose, he gets momentarily distracted by the discovery of an ancient statue of Apollo in his fishing net, which he decides to hide at home. When Hamas discovers the existence of this mysterious treasure,…

(2020, DCP, 115m, Morocco/France/Belgium, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Ismaël El Iraki w/Khansa Batma, Ahmed Hammoud, Saïd Bey. Narrative Feature. In hellish Casablanca a car-crash sets ablaze a burning, passionate love story between has-been rocker Larsen and the streetwise Rajae. The only hope for their blooming romance is to skip this ferocious town. Is there a way out of this crazy Moroccan underworld with its menagerie of sadistic cops, venomous snakes, metal concerts and shotgun-wielding modern-day Calamity Janes? For these…

(2020, DCP, 70m, Morocco/France, Arabic with English subtitles) dir Ali Essafi. Documentary feature. This glittering collage of posters, magazine covers, archival footage, jazz music, and cartoons takes you back to the art scene of 1970s Morocco, viewed from the perspective of the artists and actors themselves. Many of them were to end up in prison or disappear without a trace. The story revolves around a Moroccan independent film from 1974, About Some Meaningless Events by Mostafa Derkaoui, where a group…