Languages Archives: Arabic

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A drag queen holds two faces close to her's.

Maurice’s Bar [short film]

  Tzor Edery, Tom Prezman

  France, Israel     15 minutes

Synopsis

One of Paris’ first queer bars is commemorated in this strikingly composed and visually moody short. Customers recount mysterious rumors about the bar’s Jewish-Algerin owner, enjoy the bar’s infamous cabaret, and canoodle in its dark corners as an obsessive policeman surveils the bar from across the street.

This film screens as part of the Shorts 2: Animation – Desires program.

  

 Arabic, French with subtitles 

Content Considerations
Gendered violence
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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

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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

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A woman in a silk pink robe watches a young Sudanese woman with a smile.

Goodbye Julia

  Mohamed Kordofani

  Sudan     121 minutes

Synopsis

Haunted by guilt over her role in the death of a Southern man and his young son, a former singer from the North of Sudan seeks redemption by hiring the dead man’s widow as her maid — all while concealing her true identity. Their intricate connection develops amidst the turmoil of Sudan’s final days as a unified country, against a backdrop of violence and systemic racism. In this gripping feature debut — Sudan’s first feature film to be officially showcased at the Cannes Film Festival — director Mohamed Kordofani offers viewers a haunting and deeply layered exploration of guilt, redemption, and the enduring power of human bonds.

 Arabic with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Amjad Abu Elalala, Mohamed Le Omda, Ali Alarabi
  •   Mohamed Kordofani
  •   Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, Ger Duany
  •   Station Films, Ambient Light

Sponsors

Black Perspectives Program Sponsors

logo: Allstate 199x50

New Directors Program Sponsors

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

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A man kneels next to a little girl while a soldier holds out his hands.

Green Border Zielona Granica

  Agnieszka Holland

  Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium     152 minutes

Synopsis

Urgent, clear-eyed, and helmed with incredible conviction, Green Border finds master filmmaker Agnieszka Holland training her camera on a real-life geopolitical crisis. Set on the border of Poland and Belarus, the film offers a glimpse into the lives of refugees fleeing to the European Union and the humanitarian activists working to help them reach safety.

When a family of Syrian asylum seekers is left stranded in the forest, a group of Belarusian border guards shepherds them into Poland. When they encounter the Polish military, they’re forced back over into Belarus. Julia, a psychologist who lives alone near the border, witnesses this cyclical, inhumane back-and-forth and joins up with a group of activists working to rectify the situation.

 Arabic, English, French, Polish with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Marcin Wierzchoslawski, Fred Bernstein, Agnieszka Holland
  •   Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Behi Djanati Atai. Mohamad Al Rashi, Dalia Naous, Tomasz Włosok
  •   Metro Films, Blick Productions, Marlene Film Production, Beluga Tree, Astute Films