SCREENINGS//عروض

  • TAFF2020: Screening “Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم”

    TAFF2020: Screening “Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم”

    Postponed due to COVID-19.

    April 23, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Screening:

    Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم
    • Noura’s Dream//نورة تحلم

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Hinde Boujemaa
      Length: 92 mins
      Synopsis: In the Arab world, we sing about love. From Om Kalthoum to Berber songs, women and men sing of love: its griefs and jealousies, its joys and hopes and romance. But when it comes to the embodiment of this love, the enactment of desire, taboo raises its head and love becomes a sin. With her abusive husband in jail and a coveted divorce pending, hardworking Noura can almost grasp a happy, new life with lover Lassaad – but when the best-laid plans are upended, Noura must tap her unshakable will to fulfill her dream.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo
  • TAFF2020: Screening “Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار” + Panel on “Reviving the Arts in Sudan”

    TAFF2020: Screening “Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار” + Panel on “Reviving the Arts in Sudan”

    Event Details
    July 24, 2020
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for a screening of “Talking About Trees” followed by a Panel Discussion titled “Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan” featuring speakers Nehal El-Hadi, Mr. Mohamed Wahbi and Mazin Osman, moderated by Iman Abbaro.

    Screening:

    Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار
    • Talking About Trees//الحديث عن الأشجار

      Country: Sudan, France, Chad, Germany, Qatar  
      Director: Suhaib Gasmelbari
      Length: 94 mins
      Synopsis: Four older Sudanese filmmakers with passion for film battle to bring cinema-going back to Sudan, not without resistance. Their ‘Sudanese Film Club’ have decided to revive an old cinema, and again draw attention to Sudanese film history. The film intermittently weaves in clips from their films, many which were lost or banned due to their political leanings. 

    Panel:

    Film is Dead, Long Live Film: Reviving the Arts in Sudan
    Watch

    After having witnessed the history of cinema in Sudan in TALKING ABOUT TREES, motivated by the unwavering determination of these four filmmakers, this panel looks forward to examine the role of film and arts in the rebuilding of Sudan. Film in particular holds significant power in fostering community while promoting dialogue. TALKING ABOUT TREES makes us intently aware of lost potential and dreams marred and suppressed by politics and religious extremism and ultimately urges us to reconsider the importance of arts in shaping narratives about Sudan.

    Moderator: Iman Abbaro

    Speakers:

    Nehal El-Hadi, Writer, Researcher, Editor
    • Nehal El-Hadi

      Nehal El-Hadi investigates the relationships between the body (racialised, gendered), place (urban, virtual), and technology (internet, health).

      She completed a Ph.D. in Planning at the University of Toronto, where her research examined the relationships between user-generated content and everyday public urban life.

      As a scholar, her hybrid digital/material research methods are informed by her training and experience as a science and environmental journalist.

      Nehal advocates for the responsible, accountable, and ethical treatment of user-generated content in the fields of journalism, planning, and healthcare.

      Her writing has appeared in academic journals, general scholarship publications, literary magazines, and several anthologies and edited collections.

      Nehal is the Science+Technology Editor at The Conversation Canada, an academic news site, and Editor-in-Chief of Studio Magazine, a biannual print publication dedicated to contemporary Canadian craft and design. She currently holds a residency at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, where she is developing a live arts event that explores surveillance, privacy, and consent.

      Nehal sits on the Board of Directors of FiXT POINT Arts & Media and Provocation Ideas Festival. She is a member of the Digital Communities Advisory Panel at the Centre for Free Expression. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the City Institute at York University.

    Mr. Mohamed Wahbi
    Mazin Osman, Cultural Curator
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 1

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 1

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    4:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our first Shorts Programme at TAFF2020.

    Screenings:

    The Sparrow//العصفور
    • The Sparrow//العصفور

      Countries: Palestine, Austria 
      Director: Nasri Hajaj 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Based on true stories, The Sparrow, tells a story of life under dictatorship which can be anywhere and anytime. An Arab intellectual has been imprisoned for many years. One night while serving his unlimited period he is asked by the prison warden to tell stories to a five-year-old child in one of the neighboring cells. There he meets the mother of the child, born in prison. Meant to be a perfidious torture by the prison warden, he faces the challenge of how to tell a story to a child that has never seen the sun.

    In Uncle Salem’s Country
    • In Uncle Salem’s Country

      Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Slim Belhiba 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Tunisia, September 2013. There is only a fortnight left before the beginning of the school year. Uncle Salem, guardian of a small country school, begins rudimentary maintenance. Anxious about the state of the flag, he decides to go for a new one. Uncle Salem moves towards the city, where the reverberations of a betrayed revolution run through the minds and streets.

    The Old Kalbelouz
    • The Old Kalbelouz

      Country: Algeria
      Director: Imène Ayadi  
      Length: 10 mins
      Synopsis:In Algiers, Ahmed 70 years old wakes up alone at home, he will start a day immersed in his thoughts. Who is he talking to?

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى
    • Abdullah & Leilah//عبد الله و ليلى

      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

    We Were There
    • We Were There

      Countries: Lebanon, Canada 
      Director: Rodrigue Hammal 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A father who came to Beirut with his family to start over. A mother who left her native village for her own reasons. Their paths crossed as the city’s fate was about to drastically change.

    Co-presented by: 

    LIFT logo
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 2 + Panel on “Defying Politics and Pan-Arabism in Cinema”

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 2 + Panel on “Defying Politics and Pan-Arabism in Cinema”

    Event Details
    July 25, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our second Shorts Programme followed by a Panel Discussion on titled “Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema” featuring speakers Walid El-Kachab, Christina Piovesan and Viviane Saglier, moderated by Karam Masri.

    Screenings:

    Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس
    • Towards the Sun//نحو الشمس

      Country: Canada, Lebanon 
      Director: Nour Ouayda 
      Length: 17 mins 
      Synopsis: You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.

    In the Middle//في المنتصف
    • In the Middle//في المنتصف

      Country: Yemen, Qatar, Russia
      Director: Mariam Al Dhubhani 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: In a rarely seen perspective of war, we follow Ali—a Yemeni soldier on tour in the temporary capital of Aden. Leaving his hopes, dreams, and education behind to join the military, Ali dutifully sits at his checkpoint, performing a mundane task that he is clearly overqualified to do. His story represents the majority of youth in the country, people who are unable to just ‘live’, but instead are forced to continually struggle to survive.

    Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا
    • Four Acts for Syria//أربع فصول من أجل سوريا

      Country: Syria, Germany 
      Director: Waref Abo Qaba
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: Syrian history has been multicultural for centuries. This film is a voyage through Syrian culture until today’s insanity. It is a message of peace and hope for the Syrian people.

    The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس
    • The Return of Osiris//عودة اوزيريس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Essa Grayeb 
      Length: 14 mins
      Synopsis: On June 9, 1967, Egyptian President at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser appeared on television and radio to inform the Egyptian citizens of their country’s defeat. During the speech, he also announced his resignation. For many, Nasser’s speech was the first hint at the full scope of loss and disillusionment with the pan-Arab vision he led. The film weaves together dozens of scenes that feature the speech from Egyptian films and television series produced between 1972-2016. The found footage excerpts were edited to reconstruct Nasser’s speech of resignation according to the original text.

    Compressed//مضغوط
    • Compressed//مضغوط

      Country: Syria, France 
      Director: Ali Dawwa 
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: Compressed highlights the work of Khaled Dawwa, a Syrian artist, who was in one of the Syrian regime’s prisons. He met many young people in the prison, their only guilt and the great crime was that they had dreamed of, and asked for a better future. Released from prison, Khaled, now lives in France. He considers himself a hope for all those who are still in prison and expresses their voice and suffering through his sculptures. For Khaled, love and revolution are inseparable.

    I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء
    • I Have Seen Nothing,​I Have Seen All//لم أرى شيئا, رأيت كل شيء

      Country: Syria, Sweden 
      Director: Yasser Kassab 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: After talking about the end of the war in Syria and the start of the reconstruction phase, Yaser and his family find themselves compelled to deal with the transfer of graves from public parks in Aleppo. Thousands of kilometers separate Yaser from his parents in Aleppo. With what these two places carry of contradiction is reflecting the way they both deal with what happened.

    Panel:

    Defying Politics, Towards Pan-Arabism in Cinema: The Role of Transnational Cinemas and Film Festivals in Creating a New Arab Cinema

    Given the recent new wave of Arab cinema, bolstered by co-productions and initiatives around the world, particularly in film festivals, this panel aims to examine the recent wave of Arab films in international film festivals through the lens of a pan-Arab renaissance. Recent co-production initiatives, transnational talent development and pan-Arab distribution, in particular, are defying national borders and are reinvigorating and redefining preconceived notions of what constitutes Arab cinema.

    Watch

    Moderator:

    Karam Masri, Filmmaker
    • Karam Masri

      Karam Masri is a Program Consultant for Film & Television at Ontario Creates, the provincial agency that supports the economic development of Ontario’s cultural sectors. Prior to joining Ontario Creates, Karam was the Business Analyst at the Bell Fund, a private fund that supports the creation and development of Canadian digital/TV multi-platform projects. Karam holds two Master’s degrees: an MFA in Film Production and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business. She also wrote & directed the short film “Juha the Whale”, winner of the York Thesis prize.

    Speakers:

    Christina Piovesan, Producer & President of First Generation Films
    • Christina Piovesan

      Christina Piovesan is the founder and principal of First Generation Films, a film and tv production company based in Toronto. Past films include the Cannes Winner Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis; The Whistleblower directed by Larysa Kondracki, Mouthpiece directed by Patricia Rozema, Paper Year, written and directed by Rebecca Addelman and American Woman directed by Semi Chellas which had its Canadian premiere as a Gala Presentation at TIFF 2019. Her collaboration with Elevation Productions, the production arm of Elevation Pictures, has Christina in post-production on The Exchange directed by Dan Mazer and French Exit directed by Azazel Jacobs. Most recently, Christina was producer on The Nest directed by Sean Durkin which had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival

    Dr. Walid El Kachab, Associate Professor, Arabic Studies, York University
    • Walid El Khachab

      Walid El Khachab has published in Cairo four poetry collections in Arabic: The Dead do not consume (Al Mawta La Yastahlekoon, 2001); She who is (Allati, 2013); Sudden Moon (Qamar Mofajei’, 2015), I’timad’s Booth (Koshk I’timad, 2019). In 2022, his monograph about legendary Arab comedian Fuad al-Mohandes The Arachitect of Joy (Mohandes al Bahga) was released at Dar al Maraya publishing house, Cairo. He also translated into Arabic Canadian poet’s Mon Latif Ghattas collection, Les Chants du Karawan, and Canadian poetry theorist Paul Zumthor’s Introduction à la poésie orale. He teaches Arabic Studies at York University

    Dr. Viviane Saglier, Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University
    • Viviane Saglier

      Viviane Saglier is a UTSC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Prior to that, she was an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropology Department at McGill University. She received her PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies from Concordia University. She is currently working on two projects: a first book on Palestinian film infrastructures, and a second book on histories of Arab cinema, gender, and decolonization. Her writings on Arab cinema, postcolonial theory, media economies, and transnational solidarity have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. Outside of the university, she curates collective programs of Arab cinema and political documentaries as well as video art exhibitions. 

      She started the Works-in-Progress (WIP) series and co-led the Political Imaginaries of Waiting working group.

    Panel Sponsored by:

    Faculty Arts & Science - U of T Logo
    Innis College Logo

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo
    RPFF logo
  • TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 3

    TAFF2020: Shorts Programme 3

    Event Details
    July 26, 2020
    7:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Join us for our third Shorts Programme at TAFF2020

    Screenings

    Sh’hab//شهاب
    • Sh’hab//شهاب

      Country: Qatar
      Length: 13 min
      Director: Amal Al-Muftah
      Synopsis: Upon hearing a myth about falling stars, a young girl’s curiosity is sparked. When night falls on the village of AlWakrah, she sets out on her father’s boat, with the assistance of her older brother, to chase the fabled comets.

    Left Right//يسار يمين
    • Left Right//يسار يمين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Moutii Dridi
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Yassine, 7 years old, left handed, his father is forcing him to use his right hand.

    Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف
    • Amphitheater//المسرح المكشوف

      Country: Qatar 
      Director: Mahdi Ali 
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A professional Qatari photographer is intrigued by the rebellion of a teenage girl from her conservative family as they take pictures of the frescoes in a cultural village. She pursues the teenage girl, documenting her rebellion until the family rebukes her. After discovering the girl’s hideout, the photographer follows her into an amphitheater, where she finally has a chance to express her inner voice.

    Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا
    • Maradona’s Legs//اجرين مارادونا

      Countries: Palestine, Germany 
      Director: Firas Khoury 
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: During the 1990 World Cup, two young Palestinian boys are looking for “Maradona’s legs”; the last missing sticker that they need in order to complete their world cup album and win a free Atari. ​

    I Am Fatou
    • I Am Fatou

      Country: Egypt, Italy, Germany 
      Director: Amir Ramadan 
      Length: 18 mins 
      Synopsis: Fatou is a 23-year-old Italian girl of Senegalese origin. She lives in a suburb of Rome with her mother who would like to educate according to the rigid impositions of her culture of origin. But Fatou is looking for his own identity that combines her black Muslim being with Italian society, and unlike most of her peers, the social stigma of the immigrant is imprinted on her, that isolates her and reduces her friendships with other young children of foreigners. Her authentic passion and screen against prejudice is singing: music is what will never betray herself. After a night at the disco, Fatou is attacked by a thirty year old Italian who first insults her, and then tries to physically mistreat her. She confronts him with courage, opposes him, and finally manages to get on the bus that takes her back to her neighbourhood. In the short walk home, Fatou finds the strength to break the fear and humiliation with the song. An intimate nocturnal song in which Fatou tells herself, in the silence of the sleeping city, expressing his dreams as a girl, the hope of a radiant life that is perhaps already waiting for her. Fatou says she does not know love, if not in her mother’s feelings, she sings about the possibility of love, which means first of all to love oneself. And its poetic momentum becomes universal reflection on the sense of identity, so longed for and, for many, never really possessed.

    Ambiance//امبيانس
    • Ambiance//امبيانس

      Country: Palestine 
      Director: Wisam Al Jafari 
      Length: 15 mins 
      Synopsis: Despite the noise and chaos of the refugee camp, two young Palestinian refugees discover a creative way to record music in order to meet a competition deadline.

    Roujoula//رجولة
    • Roujoula//رجولة

      Country: France, Morocco 
      Length: 22 min 
      Director: Ilias El Faris
      Synopsis: In Casablanca, Eid-Al-Adha is around the corner. Imad, who sells hacked DVDs in the streets, doesn’t manage to earn enough money to buy the sacrificial sheep. The perfect excuse to take advantage of his studious little brother, forcing him to become a parking attendant, not realizing that he is giving Fayçal the perfect opportunity to exact his revenge.

    Co-presented by: 

    Goethe Institut Logo
  • TAFF2021: “Speculative Fiction” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2021: “Speculative Fiction” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021 – May 30, 2021
    Virtual

    A curated short films programme accompanying our panel on speculative fiction in Arab films. This programme is available for international viewing.

    Screenings:

    Blaxites
    • Blaxites

      Countries: Canada
      Director: Josh Lyon
      Length: 12 mins
      Synopsis: Jai’s celebratory social media post affects her access to vital medication. Her attempts to circumvent the system leads to even more dire consequences.The Surveillance Studies Center and the Big Data Surveillance Project present A Screening Surveillance Film. For more information, visit: screeningsurveillance.com.

    Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا
    • Fear: Audibly//الخوف: صوتيا

      Countries: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Mahaa El Saati
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: Anxious that Judgment Day is on the horizon, Amal keenly awaits to hear the Trumpet of Doom; One day, unexpected guests invade her office space to confirm her fears.

    The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة
    • The Poet and the Swan//الشاعر و البجعة

      Country: Syria
      Director: Ayham Jabr
      Length: 41 mins
      Synopsis: In a parallel and imagined world, a revolution has triumphed. A revolution based and fuelled by hatred and ignorance, in all countries of Asia, the time of Asyatopia. The dystopian short film is inspired by the writings of George Orwell and the poems of Nizar Qabbani. The events of the film take place in a country in Asia after the victory of a black revolution – in it, thinking and feeling was forbidden, war ragged on, permanent revolutionary censorship, manipulation of the masses … and lies. The life of the film’s protagonist is turned upside down … after he receives a paper written on it one word … a word that can cause him to disappear from the face of the world.

    Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد
    • Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow//آخر أيّام رجل الغَد

      Country: Lebanon, Germany
      Director: Fadi Baki
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: A young filmmaker investigates the legend of Manivelle, an automaton gifted to Lebanon in 1945 that still haunts an abandoned mansion in Beirut. After being coaxed back out into the limelight, the people who knew him come forward to speak their mind, and the myth that Manivelle has constructed around himself begins to unravel. A science-fiction mockumentary out of Lebanon, Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow is a funny, sad and weird look at the life of the Middle East’s first and only living robot and the stories you won’t find in your history books.

    Co-presented with Breakthroughs Film Festival

    Breakthroughs Film Festival Logo
  • TAFF2021: Screening “Abou Leila//أبو ليلى”

    TAFF2021: Screening “Abou Leila//أبو ليلى”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screening:

    Abou Leila//أبو ليلى
    • Abou Leila//أبو ليلى

      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.

    Co-presented with Arab Community Centre of Toronto and Canadian Arab Institute

    The Arab Community Centre of Toronto | ACCT logo
    Canadian Arab Institute Logo
  • TAFF2021: Screening “Sugar Cage//قفص السكر”

    TAFF2021: Screening “Sugar Cage//قفص السكر”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Sugar Cage//قفص السكر
    • Sugar Cage//قفص السكر

      Country: Syria  
      Director: Zeina Qahwaji
      Length: 60 mins
      Synopsis: In an attempt to record a standstill time, the filmmaker examines her intimate life with her aging parents over the course of 8 years since the beginning of war in Syria. The film is questioning a life style, and scenes of isolation and stagnancy that overshadow life in Syria. In parallel, it is observing an intimate, human affection that’s maybe rooted deeper than we may imagine.

    Co-presented with Al Markaz.

    AL MARKAZ logo
  • TAFF2021: Screening “The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول” + “The Tomb//الضريح”

    TAFF2021: Screening “The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول” + “The Tomb//الضريح”

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول
    • The Unknown Saint//سيد المجهول

      Country: Morocco  
      Director: Alaa Eddine Aljem
      Length: 126 mins
      Synopsis: Amine steals a big bag of money and escapes into the hills with the police hot on his trail. Before he is arrested, he digs a grave to bury the cash and disguises it as a modest tomb. Years later, Amine is released from prison and sets off to find his money. In the meantime, a religious shrine has been built directly over the place he buried his cash. The mausoleum honours an unknown saint from the region whose tomb was recently discovered. Down the hill from the resting place of the “The Unknown Saint”, a new village subsists on the pilgrims who travel from far and wide to visit the mausoleum. Amine settles into the village and begins plotting a way in. But with the loot now hidden in a holy place, retrieving it suddenly becomes much more complicated.

    The Tomb//الضريح
    • The Tomb//الضريح

      Country: Sudan  
      Director: Eltayeb Mahdi
      Length: 17 mins
      Synopsis: The Tomb tells the story of a man who claims to be able to heal people.

    Co-presented with Association Marocaine de Toronto.

    Association Marocaine de Toronto AMDT Logo
  • TAFF2021: Shorts Film Collection (Available Globally)

    TAFF2021: Shorts Film Collection (Available Globally)

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Pacific
    • Pacific

      Country: Belgium, Lebanon
      Director: Angie Obeid
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Whenever I walk through the dark reddish hallways to reach my apartment, whenever I would look out of my windows and dive into that expended view of the city of Brussels, unusual feelings would emerge. Until the day I read an article about my building PACIFIC, entitled “the suicide tower”.

    Foam (Écume)
    • Foam (Écume)

      Country: Canada
      Director: Omar Elhamy 
      Length: 28 mins
      Synopsis: The car repair shop is their second home and their colleagues are like family. Everyone has their quirks and is accepted for the way they are. But then comes the bad news: they are soon to be squeezed out by a more lucrative new building project. How should they respond? How can they support each other? A buddy film about life’s little and larger transformations, about social class and solidarity, captured in sensitively telling images.

    Clench My Fists
    • Clench My Fists

      Country: United States
      Director: Sarah Trad
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. “Clench My Fists” is part of a series of work focusing on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.

    The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل
    • The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل

      Country: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Sara Mesfer
      Length: 24 mins
      Synopsis: In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night’s darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

    And The Night Will Carry Us
    • And The Night Will Carry Us

      ​Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Koudhai Amine 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: A dog walks at night.

    One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة
    • ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة

      ​Country: Syria
      Director: Malas Twins
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

    Aziza
    • Aziza//عزيزة

      Country: Syria, Lebanon
      Director: Soudade Kaadan
      Length: 13 mins
      Synopsis: Ayman, Syrian refugee in Lebanon, teaching his wife how to drive his car, the only thing left for him from his country. The lesson takes a wrong turn into madness and nostalgia.

  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 1

    TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 1

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Sukar//سُكَّر
    • Sukar//سُكَّر

      Country: Morocco 
      Director: Illias El Faris 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: Casablanca’s beach, Morocco. Teenager’s desire for each other is growing discreetly. Adults and children oversee. A fight creates a diversion. 

    Mutts (Clebs)//كلب
    • Mutts (Clebs)//كلب

      Country: Canada, Morocco
      Director: Halima Ouardiri 
      Length: 18 mins
      Synopsis: The animals’ brown, beige, white and black coats blend into the ochre earth and sunbaked walls. After the calm of rest hour, a deafening cacophony breaks out at feeding time, as the dogs bark excitedly. In a stray-dog refuge in Agadir, Morocco, more than 750 animals find help and protection while awaiting adoption. Each day is the same as the last, the only excitement provided by mealtime. Empathetic and alert to subtleties of light and texture, Halima Ouardiri observes the rhythm of the animals’ lives, their suspended existence paralleling the far more tragic waiting endured by millions of human beings in search of a new home.

    Foam (Écume)
    • Foam (Écume)

      Country: Canada
      Director: Omar Elhamy 
      Length: 28 mins
      Synopsis: The car repair shop is their second home and their colleagues are like family. Everyone has their quirks and is accepted for the way they are. But then comes the bad news: they are soon to be squeezed out by a more lucrative new building project. How should they respond? How can they support each other? A buddy film about life’s little and larger transformations, about social class and solidarity, captured in sensitively telling images.

    And The Night Will Carry Us
    • And The Night Will Carry Us

      ​Country: Tunisia 
      Director: Koudhai Amine 
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: A dog walks at night.

    Jardins Paradise
    • Jardins Paradise

      Country: Canada
      Director: Yza Nouiga
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: Garden of Eden, jardin à la française, English, Zen, Bahai, Arab-Islamic: Gardens reflect history, culture and heritage. They are some of the rare places where intimacy, gatherings, fun and religion coexist. And, what if Paradise was nothing more than a green parking lot designed to suit each and everyone’s own preferences?

    Co-presented by:

    LIFT logo
    Mena Logo
  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 2

    TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 2

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Ain’t No Time For Women//مفماش وقت للنساء
    • Ain’t No Time For Women//مفماش وقت للنساء

      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.

    Pacific
    • Pacific

      Country: Belgium, Lebanon
      Director: Angie Obeid
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Whenever I walk through the dark reddish hallways to reach my apartment, whenever I would look out of my windows and dive into that expended view of the city of Brussels, unusual feelings would emerge. Until the day I read an article about my building PACIFIC, entitled “the suicide tower”.

    Storm Child
    • Storm Child 

      Country: Canada
      Director: Ines Guennaoui
      Length: 12 mins
      Synopsis: Storm Child is a nightmarish incursion in the tormented mind of a four year old child. Yasmine and her family are Algerian refugees who just arrived in Québec during the infamous 1998 ice storm.

    ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة
    • ​One Of Us Left The Photo//أحدنا غادر الصورة

      ​Country: Syria
      Director: Malas Twins
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

    Co-presented by: 

    RPFF logo
  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 3

    TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 3

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Al-Sit//الست
    • Al-Sit//الست

      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?

    The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل
    • The Girls Who Burned The Night//من يحرقن الليل

      Country: Saudi Arabia
      Director: Sara Mesfer
      Length: 24 mins
      Synopsis: In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night’s darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

    Aziza//عزيزة
    • Aziza//عزيزة

      Country: Syria, Lebanon
      Director: Soudade Kaadan
      Length: 13 mins
      Synopsis: Ayman, Syrian refugee in Lebanon, teaching his wife how to drive his car, the only thing left for him from his country. The lesson takes a wrong turn into madness and nostalgia.

    ​Nour//نور
    • Nour//نور

      ​Country: Tunisia
      Director: Rim Nakhli
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: Nour and Adem set off to look for their father, whom they haven’t seen for a long time. The two of them cross the city to the rendez-vous, but their father fails to show up.

    Co-presented by: 

    RPFF logo
  • TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 4

    TAFF2021: Shorts Programme 4

    Event Details
    May 27, 2021
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    So We Live//لنا نعيش
    • So We Live//لنا نعيش

      Country: Belgium 
      Director: Rand Abou Fakher
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: A family living in a war torn country spends what seems to be a normal evening together. Their conversations shift between casual matters of daily life and survival. This ambiguous situation highlights the aches of how we take time for granted and live life.

    The Departure
    • The Departure

      Country: France, Morocco 
      Director: Said Hamich
      Length: 25 mins
      Synopsis: Morocco, 2004. The summer of Adil, 11 years old, is upset by the visit of his father and his big brother, who leave for France in just a few days …

    Clench My Fists
    • Clench My Fists

      Country: United States
      Director: Sarah Trad
      Length: 6 mins
      Synopsis: A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. “Clench My Fists” is part of a series of work focusing on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.

    I’m Afraid To Forget Your Face//ستاشر
    • I’m Afraid To Forget Your Face//ستاشر

      Country: Egypt, France, Qatar, Belgium
      Director: Sameh Alaa
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: After being separated for 82 days, Adam travels down a rough road to be reunited with the one he loves, whatever it takes.

    Co-presented with Arab Community Centre of Toronto and Canadian Arab Institute.

    The Arab Community Centre of Toronto | ACCT logo
    Canadian Arab Institute Logo
  • TAFF2022: “Cinema, Oblivion, & Rememoration” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Cinema, Oblivion, & Rememoration” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 26, 2022
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Dajla: Cinema and Oblivion
    • Dajla: Cinema and Oblivion

      Country: Spain
      Director: Arturo Dueñas
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: The rocky desert in southwestern Algeria is the temporary home of about 150,000 refugees from Western Sahara. Goats grazing or the opening of a beauty salon are among the many scenes of everyday life of people who are eagerly awaiting the beginning of the film festival. The observational documentary captures the unwavering love of film in a place that the world has forgotten.

    Cine-Ruins
    • Cine-Ruins

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Oscar Debs
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: A family rumor about an Egypt-based star’s kinship to the Debs family in El-Mina, Tripoli, led to revisiting the history of a specific deserted cinema theatre there and the family of its manager.

    Searching for Amal//البحث عن أمل
    • Searching for Amal//البحث عن أمل

      Country: Egypt
      Director: Shehab Abd Al-hafez
      Length: 30 mins
      Synopsis: A grandson opens up old family photos to realize that there was always a picture of a girl hanging on the wall behind them, and now he sets upon a path of discovery.

    Joe Buffalo
    • Joe Buffalo

      Country: Canada
      Director: Amar Chebib
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: Joe Buffalo, an Indigenous skateboard legend and Indian Residential School survivor, must face his inner demons to realize his dream of turning pro.

  • TAFF2022: “Déraciné” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Déraciné” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 26, 2022
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Mariam//مريم
    • Mariam//مريم

      Country: Palestine
      Director: Dana Durr
      Length: 5 mins
      Synopsis: After losing her precious paradise, Mariam undergoes a journey through her roots and history to find culture and continuity.

    Nur El Qulub//نورالقلوب
    • Nur El Qulub//نورالقلوب

      Country: Canada
      Director: Sawsan Alsaraf
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: Nur Al Qulub is an exploration of the spiritual dimension of shadow and light. Drawing from the director’s experiences as the end-of-life support person for many near and dear people in her life, this project seeks to ask questions about spiritual truth, transitions, and the unknown. Dwelling on the threshold of spaces of darkness leading to the light, shadow work and discomfort, and the material and the spiritual, Nur Al Qulub references AlSaraf’s deepest realizations around the meaning of life – and death.

    The Song of Sin//نشيد الخطيئة
    • The Song of Sin//نشيد الخطيئة

      Country: France
      Director: Khalid Maadour
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: The Song of Sin retraces the story of Sufunis and Youba, couple of Imediazens, a tribe of the rif located in the North East of Morocco. Poets and musicians, heirs to an ancestral art, they are ostracized by a society that is looking for itself. Much more than a love story, the story of a people, is played out on these windswept highlands, between resignation and combat.

    Don’t Forget The Water//لا تنسى التسمية
    • Don’t Forget The Water//لا تنسى التسمية

      Country: Canada
      Director: Christina Hajjar
      Length: 5 mins
      Synopsis: A phone conversation sets the diasporic table as a disembodied figure prepares Qahwah Arabi / Arabic Coffee. Here, the contradictions inherent in Google Translate’s instant camera feature are made visible through glitched mistranslations. Using these flaws as a prompt, the communication between a mother and a daughter considers ambiguity as a source of embodied knowledge.

    CloseCall
    • CloseCall

      Country: Egypt, United States
      Director: Amr El-Bayoumi, Matt Tsymbal
      Length: 9 mins
      Synopsis: An Egyptian-American businessman arrives in New York City to salvage a transaction that has his career hanging in the balance. Will a detour to the 9/11 Memorial jeopardize the deal?

    Co-presented with Al Markaz.

    AL MARKAZ logo
  • TAFF2022: “Objects of Affection” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Objects of Affection” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 26, 2022
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    A Toi
    • A Toi

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Nour Azar Chami
      Length: 11 mins
      Synopsis: A 12 year old boy develops a spiritual relationship with his dead grandpa.

    Tala’Vision//تالافيزيون
    • Tala’Vision//تالافيزيون

      Country: Germany, Jordan
      Director: Murad Abu Eisheh
      Length: 27 mins
      Synopsis: Trapped in a war ridden reality, with the hope of one day playing in the neighborhood’s football field, 8 year old Tala finds solace and freedom in a forbidden television. However, the secret TV becomes a matter of life and death.

    Aïcha’s Dress//روبة عيشة
    • Aïcha’s Dress//روبة عيشة

      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.

    Son Of The Streets
    • Son Of The Streets

      Country: Palestine
      Director: Mohammed Almughanni
      Length: 33 mins
      Synopsis: The film depicts the daily life of Khodor, a 13-year-old orphan whose relatives struggle to get him an ID card that proves his existence and gives him the right to education, health care and freedom of movement outside the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, Lebanon. During the process, long hidden family secrets are revealed.

    Co-presented with Toronto Palestine Film Festival

    TPFF logo
  • TAFF2022: “Off-Season Tourists” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Off-Season Tourists” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 26, 2022
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Sandjak//سنجق
    • Sandjak//سنجق

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Chantal Partamian
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: Navigating three types of images, shot in three different periods, the film explores the poetics of haunting through compositions of images that create an entanglement between the past and the present. An intimate but detached voice, a little stoic even, speaking of countless losses. The repeated affirmation of belonging to a place that is no longer.

    Galb’Echaouf//قلب الشوف
    • Galb’Echaouf//قلب الشوف

      Country: Morocco
      Director: Abdessamad El Montassir
      Length: 18 mins
      Synopsis: While investigating on an event that profoundly changed the landscape of the Occidental Sahara, the filmmaker was faced with a silent entourage and parents who are haunted by this harsh socio-political history. He consequently focuses his attention on the landscape and plants in order to find elements that could answer and help to reconstruct this amnesia.

    The Way Back//طريق العودة
    • The Way Back//طريق العودة

      Country: Libya
      Director: Malek Mohamed Elmaghrebi
      Length: 18 mins
      Synopsis: Tawergha is a village in the middle of northern Libya, during the events of the Libyan revolution on February 17, 2011, all those living in Tawergha were expelled until the announcement of reconciliation between the conflicting parties after seven years, but it seems that only declaring reconciliation is not enough until the population returns to settle again in Tawergha, and through the heroes of the story, Khairy, who decided to live in Tawergha again, and Salem, who is still not convinced to return.

    Off-Season Tourists
    • Off-Season Tourists

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Maher Hasnaoui
      Length: 30 mins
      Synopsis: In 2010, after the state crisis in Ivory Coast, Hervé decides to leave his country. Once he arrives in Tunisia, he must face a reality he never imagined and dreaming of a better life becomes his daily challenge.

    Warsha//ورشة
    • Warsha//ورشة

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Dania Bdeir
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: A Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut volunteers to cover a shift on one of the most dangerous cranes, where he is able to find his freedom.

  • TAFF2022: “Strange Encounters” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Strange Encounters” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 26, 2022
    6:00 pm EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Strangers After Midnight
    • Strangers After Midnight

      Country: Syria
      Director: Kinda Youssef
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: Moments that unfolded late one night in the life of four Syrian refugees in Paris.

    Roadblock//حاجز
    • Roadblock//حاجز

      Country: France, Lebanon
      Director: Dahlia Nemlich
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: Beirut 2019 – During the Revolution. On her way back from a protest, Farah, a young Lebanese woman and her French – Lebanese boyfriend, Anthony, are stopped at a roadblock held by two armed militiamen who have a bone to pick with Farah.

    Nightfall//الشفق
    • Nightfall//الشفق

      Country: France
      Director: Roméo De Melo Martins
      Length: 26 mins
      Synopsis: On the 13th of July 2011, during a demonstration against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, the Syrian authorities arrest several intellectuals and artists. Among them, Ali Abou Georges, theater actor. After a night of interrogation, he is taken to the office of General Omar, the head of the Syrian intelligence service.

    The Laughing Woo Woo
    • The Laughing Woo Woo

      Country: United States
      Director: Amir Youssef
      Length: 17 mins
      Synopsis: A proof-of-concept short film about Simsim – a lonesome Egyptian asylee in San Francisco with a wooingly contagious laugh, is battling his bizarre misfortunes to follow immigration procedures, and his only hope is his greedy lawyer Dale.

    5:1
    • 5:1

      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.”

    Co-presented with Canadian Arab Institute

    Canadian Arab Institute Logo
  • TAFF2022: “Strange Encounters” Shorts Programme

    TAFF2022: “Strange Encounters” Shorts Programme

    Event Details
    May 29, 2022
    2:30 pm EDT
    Paradise Theatre, 1006 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M6H 1M2

    Screenings:

    Strangers After Midnight
    • Strangers After Midnight

      Country: Syria
      Director: Kinda Youssef
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: Moments that unfolded late one night in the life of four Syrian refugees in Paris.

    Roadblock//حاجز
    • Roadblock//حاجز

      Country: France, Lebanon
      Director: Dahlia Nemlich
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: Beirut 2019 – During the Revolution. On her way back from a protest, Farah, a young Lebanese woman and her French – Lebanese boyfriend, Anthony, are stopped at a roadblock held by two armed militiamen who have a bone to pick with Farah.

    Nightfall//الشفق
    • Nightfall//الشفق

      Country: France
      Director: Roméo De Melo Martins
      Length: 26 mins
      Synopsis: On the 13th of July 2011, during a demonstration against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, the Syrian authorities arrest several intellectuals and artists. Among them, Ali Abou Georges, theater actor. After a night of interrogation, he is taken to the office of General Omar, the head of the Syrian intelligence service.

    The Laughing Woo Woo
    • The Laughing Woo Woo

      Country: United States
      Director: Amir Youssef
      Length: 17 mins
      Synopsis: A proof-of-concept short film about Simsim – a lonesome Egyptian asylee in San Francisco with a wooingly contagious laugh, is battling his bizarre misfortunes to follow immigration procedures, and his only hope is his greedy lawyer Dale.

    5:1
    • 5:1

      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.”