Kanopy (Firm)
1) Syrian bride
Language
Arabic
Description
Shot on location in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian bride is a powerful film about physical, mental and emotional borders and the courage it takes to cross them.
3) Halfaouine
Language
Arabic
Description
A charming tale of a young boy's sexual awakening in Muslim Tunisia. Boughedir's style is sensual and full of joy, celebrating the pleasures of everyday life.
Language
Arabic
Description
A Sudanese immigrant to the UK returns to her homeland to understand why the seemingly racially harmonious country of her memories has become the scene of one of the worst instances of ethnic cleansing in recent history. Director Taghreed Elsanhouri says that she made this film "out of a passionate belief that I was uniquely qualified to tell a story of race because as a northerner in Sudan I know what it is to belong to a dominant group and as a...
7) Ave Maria
Language
Arabic
Description
An Israeli settler family crash their car outside an isolated convent in the occupied West Bank. Their only hope of getting home rests with five nuns who have taken a vow of silence.
Language
Arabic
Description
Nineteen-year-old Baset is the goalkeeper for the Syrian national soccer team. When revolution breaks out the charismatic young man becomes an iconic protest leader and singer. Osama is a 24-year-old media activist and pacifist wielding his camera to document the revolution. But when their beloved Homs becomes a bombed-out ghost town, these two peaceful protesters take up arms and transform into renegade insurgents, with devastating results.
9) Radio Kobani
Language
Arabic
Description
Out of the smoke and dust of battle came RADIO KOBANÎ, the brainchild of 20-year-old Dilovan. A young Kurdish woman, Dilovan took it upon herself to document the final days of IS control, and the stories of refugees returning to their flattened homes. Despite her harrowing experiences, Dilovan’s positivity is resilient. Her belief is vindicated by the strength of Kobanî’s citizens and their capacity to collaborate in the face of destruction....
10) The Challenge
Language
Arabic
Description
Italian visual artist Yuri Ancarani’s exquisite documentary enters the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs with a passion for amateur falconry. The opulence of this Middle Eastern gas state is on full display as the men race SUVs up and down sand dunes, fly their prized falcons around on private jets, and take their pet cheetahs out for desert spins in their souped-up Ferraris. The result is a film jaw-dropping not only for its displays of...
11) Hands of God
Language
Arabic
Description
Executive produced by Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, HANDS OF GOD is a stirring portrait of resilience in the face of crisis, as it follows the Iraqi National Boxing Team's historic attempt to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
12) Half a Life
Language
Arabic
Appears on list
Description
After a traumatic encounter, a young, gay Egyptian joins the LGBT rights movement. When his safety is jeopardized, he must choose whether to stay in the country he loves or seek asylum elsewhere as a refugee. HALF A LIFE is a timely story of activism and hope, set in the increasingly dangerous, oppressive, and unstable social climate of Egypt today.
Language
Arabic
Description
In February 2002 - about a year before the U.S. invasion - Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel traveled home from France to capture everyday life as his country prepared for war. No strangers to war, the Iraqis thought they understood what was coming, and could even manage to be grimly humorous about what they felt would likely be a major and lengthy inconvenience. And then, the war began. When Fahdel resumed filming in 2003, two weeks after the invasion,...
Language
Arabic
Description
Qudad is an ancient lime waterproofing plaster that has been used for several millennia in the Arabian Peninsula. In Yemen, where it most likely originated, it is found on religious and secular buildings and archaeological sites. Because of its elaborate and labor-intensive application (it takes a full year to set properly), this strong, resistant material has barely been in use for the past 30 years. As a consequence, very few masons know how to...
15) Voices of Iraq
Language
Arabic
Description
Silenced under Saddam’s regime and denied media attention, the people of Iraq are not well understood at this time. The producers distributed video cameras to enable everyday people to document their lives and their hopes amidst the upheaval.
16) Bon voyage
Language
Arabic
Description
A couple's compassion is put to the test when they come across a sinking ship of refugees while on a pleasure trip across the Mediterranean. Winner of Best Film and Best Live Action Over 15 Minutes at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, Best Short Film and Best Narrative Short at the San Diego Film Festival, and the Swiss Film Prize for Best Short Film.
17) Blush
Language
Arabic
Description
17-year-old Naama spends most of her free time drinking and partying in the hopes of escaping from her parents' constant bickering, worsened by the recent disappearance of her AWOL soldier sister. When a free-spirited new girl shows up at school, Naama falls deeply in love for the first time and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning.
18) Soufra
Language
Arabic
Description
South of Beirut, Lebanon is a 68 year old refugee camp housing refugees from Palestine, Syria and Iraq. Many have lived in this camp their entire lives-- Mariam AlShaar is one of them. Now, Mariam has pulled the women of this camp together to do what has never been done before. They started with a small kitchen from a micro-loan. With nearly insurmountable political odds against them-- they look to start the first refugee food truck. Their journey...
19) Upon the Shadow
Language
Arabic
Description
Follows the life of former Femen member Amina Sboui and the community of LGBTQ friends she houses in her Tunisian home, depicting life following the Arab Spring, social persecution, and political struggle, from a queer perspective.
Language
Arabic
Description
In order to avoid a forced marriage, 19-year-old Hala finds shelter across the Euphrates, at the Kurdish Female Military. While learning how to fight, she gets inspired by the promise of freeing more women. When the Kurdish military liberates her hometown from ISIS, she returns there as a policewoman authorised to protect other vulnerable women. Hala finds herself ready to fulfil her greatest dream: to free her younger sisters from her father's hand....