Country: Canada
Director: Faisal Karadsheh
Length: 10 mins
Synopsis: 04.23.2018// A Hail Mary explores the intricacies and unique challenges faced by Karadsheh’s family during their immigration to Toronto, from the widely-publicized death of his grandfather to the personal experiences and intimacies of home.
This film was supported by the Toronto Arab Film x Trinity Square Video Filmmaker Commission.
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Length: 15 mins
Synopsis: 45th Parallel focuses on the Haskell Free Library and Opera House—a unique municipal site between the jurisdictions of Canada and the United States.
Country: Canada
Director: Sara Ben-Saud
Length: 8 mins
Synopsis: Filmmaker Ben-Saud takes us into her family home, where she was confined with her parents and adult brother and sister during the early months of the lockdown, to experience the sometimes funny and sometimes challenging realities of pandemic coexistence.”
Country: Bahrain
Director: Hashim Sharaf
Length: 16 mins
Synopsis: A young man tries to escalate a horse up the narrow stairs of the building to live with him in his apartment, but the building residents object to his path.
Country: Tunisia
Director: Asma Laajimi
Length: 13 mins
Synopsis: Mariem, a sex worker, tries to reach Dali. Her unrest grows when she fears he will break the promise to give her a double mattress.
Country: United Kingdom, Palestine
Director: Basil Khalil
Length: 90 mins
Synopsis: When a mutant virus known as ARS breaks out in Israel, people are desperate to get out of the country. Among them are Englishman Michael and Israeli Keren, a wealthy couple who find themselves stranded amidst lockdown. Their only hope is to smuggle their way into the Gaza Strip, which, due to the separation wall, is ironically “the safest place in the world.”
Country: Tunisia
Director: Aniss Lassoued
Length: 92 mins
Synopsis: Gadeha (12) happens one day to be the victim of a car accident. He undergoes surgery. Penniless, his mother, Borkana, is helped by Malika and Moez, a benevolent couple that offers to pay for the hospital fees and provides the destitute family with a roof. Gadeha meets Oussama, Malika and Moez’s child (11) who is recovering from a kidney transplant. A strong friendship is made between the two boys. But Gadeha finds out haphazardly the secret of his family’s new standard of living. He is devastated.
Country: Lebanon
Director: Nour Azar Chami
Length: 11 mins
Synopsis: A 12 year old boy develops a spiritual relationship with his dead grandpa.
Country: Canada
Director: Sara Ben-saud
Length: 61 mins
Synopsis: After discovering the memoirs of her Libyan grandfather, Sara decides to go and discover her paternal origins.
Countries: Iraq, United Kingdom
Director: Ashtar Al Khirsan
Length: 20 mins
Synopsis: Haunted by the memories of his childhood in Baghdad, Abdullah has dementia and struggles to communicate with his daughter. As his mind slips and slides between his past and his unfamiliar present, he no longer remembers the life he’s lived in London for the last 60 years and the fluent English language he’s spoken. His British born daughter Leilah, who speaks only English, searches for one last moment of connection
Country: Algeria
Director: Amin Sidi-Boumedine
Length: 135 mins
Synopsis: Algeria, 1994. With Civil War raging for years in the north of the country, each day continues to bring its share of death and horror. Police officers S. and Lotfi, two childhood friends, travel through the desert looking for Abou Leila, a dangerous terrorist on the run. In the immensity of the Sahara, their quest seems absurd, but Lofti has only one priority: to keep S. as far from the capital as possible, knowing his friend is too fragile to face more bloodshed. But the deeper they get into the desert, the more they are confronted with their own trauma and violence.
Country: Egypt
Director: Nadine Khan
Length: 89 mins
Synopsis: Experienced truck driver Abu Saddam gets a transportation mission on the North Coast road after he stopped working for years. He decides that he wants to complete his mission perfectly to complement his working reputation, but as he faces a small situation on the road things start to get out of control.
Country: Canada
Director: Rame Ibrahim
Length: 8 mins
Synopsis: Two immigrant parents are invited to talk about their journey from their home countries.
Country: Tunisia
Director: Mouhamed Saïed
Length: 28 mins
Synopsis: Saber, a young 14-year-old who lives in precariousness, manages as best he can to provide for himself and his sick mother Aïcha.
Country: Canada
Director: Sarra El Abed
Length: 19 mins
Synopsis: Tunis, November 2019. A group of women is gathered at Saïda’s, the hairdresser, on the eve of the presidential election. The salon is transformed into a town square, mirroring the internal turmoil of the country. In this female sanctuary, we get an intimate look at the county’s teenage democracy.
Country: Sudan, Qatar
Director: Suzannah Mirghani
Length: 20 mins
Synopsis: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?
Country: France
Director: Zak Kedzi
Length: 74 mins
Synopsis: Summer 2019, Zak wanders around the streets of Alger and dives into the Hirak, a series of protests happening in Algeria since February of that same year. His chronicles feed off encounters with men and women who observe through enlightened eyes their country and its struggles: through their words, the strength and complexity of such a movement takes shape.
Country: France
Director:
Zahra Berrada
Length: 26 mins
Synopsis: Ali, a young Moroccan emigrant, is torn between the conservative environment of his family and his passion for the cabaret where he cross-dresses at night to become Alia.
Country: Tunisia
Director: Younes Ben Slimane
Length: 9 mins
Synopsis: A loop of edgeless bend. You were its doom, he was its bloom. You were its tomb, he was its womb. For Heaven and Hell, were words made of fum.
Country: Germany
Director: Afraa Batous
Length: 78 mins
Synopsis: To cope with the daily trauma of a lost home, Syrian filmmaker Afraa Batous is filming her friends as they plan to embark on their first road trip ever.