2017-2018 Program
A Prince from Outer Space: Zeki Muren
Beyza Boyacioglu / Turkey
A Prince From Outer Space: Zeki Müren uses the life and legend of Turkey’s most celebrated singer and queer icon as a prism to explore the contradictions of Turkish society - a nation existing between the worlds of the east and of the west and at the same time, belonging to neither. The film looks at Zeki Müren, a chameleon-like figure who expertly used his celebrity to navigate society, while shining a light on the country’s troubled history and current crisis.
Madame X
Elsa Ginoux & Tuğçe Aydın / Turkey
Tugçe keeps on encountering objects that used to belong to Armenian survivors, either through their descendants or in flea markets. They are the only direct witnesses left of an untold tragedy. As she investigates their tragic stories, she starts to have doubts about her own origins and discovers the hidden past of her family.
Maturity
Soghra Setayesh Shaikhzada / Afghanistan
Zakia is a young girl who lives in Bamyan. She is a pioneer of women’s sports in Bamyan. Due to traditional views local people condemn her. They put pressure on her parents and grandfather to stop her sporting and social activities. But Zakia keeps fighting for the acceptance of women’s sports in her city. In this summer she wants to paraglide as the first person in Bamyan.
Midnight Traveler
Hassan Fazili & Emelie Mahdavian / Afghanistan
Midnight Traveler follows a family of Afghan filmmakers on the run from the Taliban. Told from refugee-Director Hassan Fazili’s unique first-person perspective, their story provides unprecedented access to the complex refugee encounter with the West.
Motorcycle Midwife (working title)
Sara Khaki & Mohammad Reza Eyni / Iran
Sara Shahverdi, an extraordinary woman, wins the council elections as the first woman in her native Iranian village of Bezin. Confronted with the new challenges within her own family members regarding inheritance, this film captures Sara as she deals with the world around her and her lonely world within.
My Sweet Enemy
Maria Ghafary & George Tarabay / Lebanon
Maria leaves Beirut and goes back to her village on the Northern border of Lebanon to reconnect with her old school friends – now separate by religious and political differences, not only have her friends changed but the whole neighborhood.
Oh Father, I Don't Want to Hate You
Dawood Hilmandi / Afghanistan
Years after he ran away from home as a boy, a young Afghan-Dutch artist and filmmaker goes back to confront his authoritarian father, despite not knowing how their bond will be, in the hope of finding his freedom.
Peace has its Own Rhythm
Sharon Pais / Israel
The film tells a story of a Utopian Peace Project and it's shattering against the harsh Israeli reality. Three friends that suffer from traumas after completing a combat Israeli Army Service, decide to start an alternative journey, a path of peace. To do so, they create joint drumming circles, travelling to conflict zones in Israel and around the world. The film examines the independent spiritual journey of each one of them and the story of their vision since its beginning 20 years ago.
Radiograph of a Family
Firouzeh Khosrovani / Iran
I am the product of Iran’s endless struggle between traditionalism and modernization. As a child I saw how my mother became a committed Muslim, a model citizen of the Islamic Republic. She observes the Hijab and went to religious pilgrimages while my father, a devote secularist, never stopped asking her to take off her headscarf. Radiograph of a Family is a personal account of my family's turbulent experiences with westernization and Islam. My story takes us from the Shah’s time, to the Islamic revolution and the hardships during the Iran-Iraq war, until the present day; all under one roof in a house in Tehran.
Selda
Amber Isbilen / Turkey
Selda’s space-age-psych protest music regains its voice on the world’s biggest stages after decades of censorship, imprisonment, and persecution for her freedom fighting lyrics. Today, the Western world’s leading music artists draw inspiration from her, demonstrating that her music transcends borders and her message transcends time. But was a lifetime of oppression all worth it for her?
The Church
Anat Tel / Israel
In the Church of Holy Sepulchre, at the old city of Jerusalem, the holiest site of Christianity, there is six denominations: Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians, and also Syrian, Copts, and Ethiopians, which is trying every day to maintain a very delicate Status Quo.
But the key keepers of the Church are two Muslim families, who're arguing for many years who is the real key custodian.
Each has a credible story and documents given to them centuries ago.
Power, Money and Honor intersect at the holiest site in the world.
The Last Nomads
Nadia Ghalia Lanhaidi / Morocco
Because of drought and climate changes, the south Sahel migration mafia, Morocco and Algeria borders conflict. The nomads abandon the desert and live in solid cement houses. Their camels remain. They are witness of « THE NOMADISM », an endangered universal way of live.
The Man who became a Museum
Marwen Trabelsi / Tunisia
This film brings us into an extraordinary universe of a solitary artist "Aly Issa" who has an obsession to paint and collect objects, for the needs of his art of recovery. By dint of accumulating them, he is absorbed by these objects, flooded by this plethoric production he likes. This is the fantastic story of a man who became a museum.
The Servant of Baghdad
Ahmed Al-Daradji, Jessica Kelly & Liam Creighton / Iraq
The Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Tamimi, demands absolute loyalty from his bodyguards and his boss, religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr demands absolute loyalty from him, but when Ali is engulfed by scandal, they all discover the true price of loyalty.
Whispering in the Darkness (working title)
Mohammad Reza Eyni & Sara Khaki / Iran
Weaved between intimate verite moments and rare archival footage, this film tells the story of Ghashang Kamkar, the only daughter of a large Kurdish family music band, “The Kamkars.” This is a portrait of a woman who despite the challenges has fought to remain a musician.