Film Countries Archives: Saudi Arabia

< Back to main Festival page

Shorts 9: Family Friendly Animation – Better Together

  Various

  Canada, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United States     75 minutes

Synopsis

All ages are welcome in this family-friendly program, full of colorful films that celebrate play, encourage curiosity, and emphasize the importance of communal bonds. Featuring works by Shira Avni, Lena von Döhren, Eva Rust, Guillermo Casarin, Seungbae Jeon, Christian Kaufmann, João Rodrigues, Afnan Bawyan, Adriel Meka, and Mitra Shahidi.

Two One Two (Canada) offers a poetic and deeply personal glimpse into motherhood in the form of a gorgeous, glimmering two-headed monster. A gassy fish allies with other sea creatures to fend off a hungry seagull in the hilarious and melodious underwater tale POND (Switzerland). A girl connects with her Mayan heritage on a camping trip with her father that turns into an exciting adventure in Balam (Mexico, U.S.). Peek into the inner lives of batteries with the oddball charmer Battery Mommy (South Korea). After a tiger escapes from the zoo, a bored subway worker gets the surprise of a lifetime in Town Hall Square (Germany). A curious girl gets sucked into the bizarre and magical world of the book she is reading in Ana Morphose (Portugal). A woman attempts to overcome language barriers by preparing a cultural dish that takes on a life of its own in Saleeg (Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Sweden). A friendly boy makes an unexpected connection when he attends a mysterious summer camp in Camp Kona (U.S.). In Starling (U.S.), a couple is visited by their child in her new spiritual form for a beautiful meditation on grief and eternal love.

 Arabic, English, Korean, Mayan, Spanish, Tigrinya, Urdu with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Virtual Screening

This program will be available to stream from October 16 at 12:00pm CT to October 22 at 11:59pm CDT.

Sponsors

Film Supporters

Logo: Canada 313x100

< Back to main Festival page

Three children sit in the backseat of a car, their parents in the front seat in the foreground.

The Burdened

  Amr Gamal

  Yemen, Sudan, Saudi Arabia     90 minutes

Synopsis

Aden, Southern Yemen. Married couple Isra’a and Ahmed are in trouble. Already struggling to make ends meet for their three young children, the beleaguered parents receive some unsettling news: Isra’a is pregnant. Forced to make a difficult decision in the best interest of their family, the two decide to procure an abortion.

The Burdened patiently tracks the couple’s odyssey as they navigate the hostile bureaucracy of their conservative, wartorn surroundings. Expertly composed long takes and magnetic lead performances lend a realism to the narrative, as Isra’a and Ahmed traverse the city to bribe doctors, falsify medical records, and do everything they can to keep their family together. Based on true events, the film is a timely examination of life in modern day Yemen and a passionate rendering of one family’s fight to survive.

 Arabic with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Mohsen Alkhalifi, Amr Gamal
  •   Mazen Refaat, Amr Gamal
  •   Mrinal Desai
  •   Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohammed, Samah Alamrani, Awsam Abdulrahman
  •   Adenium Productions
  •   https://filmsboutique.com/film/the-burdened/

Sponsors

New Directors Program Sponsor

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

< Back to main Festival page

Four women lay together, holding each other tenderly.

Four Daughters

  Kaouther Ben Hania

  France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Tunisia, Cyprus     107 minutes

Synopsis

A searing drama about mothers and daughters. An artistic tour-de-force that discovers powerful emotional truths in the tension between reality and fiction. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Documentary Prize, Four Daughters introduces us to Tunisian matriarch Olfa Hamrouni, a steely, wounded parent of four beautiful young women. Her two eldest daughters, as Olfa tells us early in the story, were “devoured by the wolf.”

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania explores the family tragedy that continues to haunt Olfa and her family through staged reenactments and intimate scenes between Olfa, the actors playing her and her two eldest daughters, and her younger daughters as themselves. The result is a provocative and cathartic look at their complex relationships, their sisterhood of laughter, love, and rebellion, and the social, religious, and family conflicts that led to their devastation.

 Arabic with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Nadim Cheikhrouha
  •   Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Olfa Hamrouni
  •   Tanit Films

Sponsors

Documentary Program Sponsors

Logo: WTTW (2019)Cynthia Stone Raskin

Wadjda

Wadjda is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. Soon enough, Wadjda’s plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Koranic verses, determined to continue fighting for her dreams. Wadjda is the first feature length film to be shot completely in Saudi Arabia, as well as the first feature film made by a female Saudi director

Continue Reading