Cinema Nights

CINEMA NIGHTS//ليالي السينما

Toronto Arab Film Logo

Our year-round film screenings bring audiences together to connect​ through Arab film. 

  • TAFF2024: Screening “Goodbye Julia//وداعاً جوليا”

    Event Details
    June 21, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Innis Town Hall Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5

    Screenings:

    Goodbye Julia//وداعاً جوليا
    • Goodbye Julia//وداعاً جوليا

      Country: Sudan
      Director: Mohamed Kordofani
      Length: 116 mins
      Synopsis: Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.


  • TAFF2024: Shorts Programme “Reframing”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Six Months
    • Six Months

      Country: Canada
      Director: Robin Riad
      Length: 2 mins
      Synopsis: “Six Months” is a critique of alcohol within a North American cultural context, through societal pressure and mass marketing.

    Suspended Dawn
    • Suspended Dawn

      Country: Palestine
      Director: Essa Grayeb
      Length: 19 mins
      Synopsis: Suspended Dawn is a poetic archeological excavation of Egypt’s golden age, the video essay is divided into chapters featuring digital manipulations overlaying footage from Chahine’s film and sounds.

    The Poem We Sang//غنينا قصيدة
    • The Poem We Sang//غنينا قصيدة

      Country: Palestine, Canada, Jordan
      Director: Annie Sakkab
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: The Poem We Sang is a 20-minute, colour and black and white, experimental documentary that meditates on love and longing – the love of one’s family and the longing for one’s home, contemplated through overcoming the trauma of loss of family home and of forced migration, transforming lifelong regrets into a healing journey of creative catharsis and bearing witness.

    Locus Cordis
    • Locus Cordis

      Country: Syria
      Director: Alhasan Yousef
      Length: 19 mins
      Synopsis: Occupied by Israel in 1967, the Syrian Golan has a military border running through it, which families “cross” by shouting to their loved ones. From his European exile, anxiety-ridden Alhasan Yousef attempts to break free from his inner isolation with this exploration of the power of sound, in an effort to reconnect with his lost country from afar.


  • TAFF2024: Screening “All Roads Lead to More”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    All Roads Lead to More

  • TAFF2024: Shorts Programme “Home Away From Home”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Anxiety
    • Anxiety

      Country: Germany
      Director: Alshafee Abby
      Length: 22 mins
      Synopsis: A young refugee struggles with learning the German language while being existentially at the mercy of the bureaucratic system.

    Somewhere, but not here
    • Somewhere, but not here

      Country: Canada
      Director: Karel Malkoun
      Length: 23 mins
      Synopsis: Miles away, I watch the slow erasing of my home. Scattered between two places, I am no longer anywhere.

    Edris//إدريس
    • Edris//إدريس

      Country: Egypt
      Director: Amir El-Shenawy
      Length: 17 mins
      Synopsis: A 17-year-old Eritrean boy fled the war in his country to settle in Egypt, where he dreams to overcome the barriers and get accepted into the Egyptian society so he could get a chance to become a promising professional football player and help his family back home. The documentary tells a simple story that sheds light on the status of African migrants and refugees in Egypt today.

    Hanina//Homesick
    • Hanina//Homesick

      Country: Egypt, United States
      Director: Yasmin Moll
      Length: 8 mins
      Synopsis: A young girl flies back in time to her drowned homeland, guided by the songs and stories of her community

    Water Religion//ديانة الماء
    • Water Religion//ديانة الماء

      Country: Oman
      Director: Haitham Sulaiman
      Length: 29 mins
      Synopsis: Water Religion is a short narrative film tells the story of Issa, a blind tanager who has dream to sail the sea looking after his lost father fisherman against all odds.


  • TAFF2024: Shorts Programme “(De)Liberation”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Beneath a Mother’s Feet//تحت أقدام أم
    • Beneath a Mother’s Feet//تحت أقدام أم

      Country: United Kingdom, Morocco
      Director: Elias Suhail
      Length: 15 mins
      Synopsis: A single mother in Morocco, trapped in a mundane existence, confronts her dreams and fears, leading to the agonising decision to forsake all she knows, even her children.

    What Else Grows On The Palm Of Your Hand?
    • What Else Grows On The Palm Of Your Hand?

      Country: Belgium, Morocco
      Director: Dhiaa Biya
      Length: 16 mins
      Synopsis: The routines of two women fuse together as their similar gestures get repeated over time. Their hands intersect through their shared memory one movement at a time.

    A Dog, A Stone
    • A Dog, A Stone//كلب، حجرة

      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.

    On the Sidelines
    • On the Sidelines

      Country: France
      Director: Kahina Ben Amar
      Length: 20 mins
      Synopsis: Amra recently left her family to make her professional football debut. But her grandparents who raised her aren’t young anymore, and she isn’t sure her younger sister is trustworthy. Worried, she comes back to her family for a weekend.


  • TAFF2024: Screening “Light upon Light//نور على نور”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Light upon Light//نور على نور
    • Light upon Light//نور على نور

      Country: Egypt
      Director: Christian Suhr
      Length: 78 mins
      Synopsis: A philosophical field trip from Cairo, along the Nile and into the desert in search for what light means as a religious concept in post-revolutionary Egypt.


  • TAFF2024: Screening “And If Not Now, When?”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    And If Not Now, When?
    • And If Not Now, When?

      Country: Belgium, Morocco
      Director: Guy De Troyer
      Length: 28 mins
      Synopsis: This essay documentary makes an intimate journey into the world of Paulette, one of the last remaining Jews in Marrakech who decided to stay and is reflecting on a universal question: where do you feel at home?


  • TAFF2024: Screening “Tadur”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Tadur//تدور
    • Tadur//تدور

      Country: Lebanon
      Director: Jad Andari
      Length: 50 mins
      Synopsis: A young farmer on the outskirts of a mountain village wastes away with gangsters and prostitutes who lurk in the forest.


  • TAFF2024: Screening “Take My Breath//المايين”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    Take My Breath//المايين
    • Take My Breath//المايين

      Country: Tunisia
      Director: Nada Mezni Hafaiedh
      Length: 95 mins
      Synopsis: When Shams’ intersex identity is exposed, the young seamstress’ tranquil life unravels.


  • TAFF2024: Screening “The Factory”

    Event Details
    June 20, 2024
    7:00 PM EDT
    Virtual

    Screenings:

    The Factory
    • The Factory

      Country: Syria
      Director: Yanal Mansour
      Length: 46 mins
      Synopsis: A feature documentary film that deals with a group of events experienced by Captain Maher, a firefighter who, through a personal voluntary initiative, enters public schools teaching a subject he called “public safety,” where students are taught a set of ways to survive possible mistakes caused by war or environmental disasters.