All Films

Between Sand and Skyline

Synopsis

Alya must bridge two worlds: the modern corporate skyline she climbs daily and the deep-rooted traditions of her desert heritage. Alya travels to grand mothers' home in Old Town village and meets her. The rhythm of their valuable day in the house. A blending of tradition and family bonding where she understands the patience and poetry though it. "The UAE national anthem and flag appear briefly as part of the film's authentic cultural setting and character journey."

Meaning of my Survival

Synopsis

The Meaning of My Survival (40 min) is an intimate and urgent journey into the heart of what it means to remain. Through a series of candid conversations, a fellow filmmaker interviews Ahmad (protagonist's name), a documentarian who risked his life to capture the 2024 war in Lebanon. The film weaves Ahmad's raw, haunting footage with present-day reflections, creating a visceral tapestry of memory and survival. We see the war not through news headlines, but through his lens: a child drawing on rubble, a family sharing a meal in a shelter, the tense silence of driving through bombed-out streets. These are not scenes of victimhood, but quiet, profound acts of existence. As the interview unfolds, the film challenges the Western media's necropolitical gaze, which demands proof of Arab suffering. Instead, Ahmad's camera asserts a simple, radical truth: We are here, and our story is ours to tell. معنى بقائي is a sensory meditation on resilience and a decolonial manifesto that argues the most powerful resistance is the unwavering decision to live, document, and remember.

Last Host

Synopsis

The world collapsed, but his mission remained. Navigating the echoes of a lost civilization, a father hunts for his missing son across a landscape of ruins and emptiness—a testament that even at the edge of extinction, love refuses to be extinguished.

Guardian of Well

Synopsis

Amid a historic drought in the southern reaches of Chad's Sahara Desert, a well-goer recalls his lost cattle and contemplates his plans for a change in livelihood.

The Day of Az-Zarqua

Synopsis

Set within a marginalized estate ruled by a controlling and tyrannical man, the film follows a young woman gifted with an unsettling intuition for detecting external danger. From her window, she observes the movements of an unseen enemy and desperately searches for a way to protect her people. Her warnings are ignored, her voice dismissed, and every door is closed in her face. As she struggles to be heard, she loses her child and discovers him caught between a man and a woman who embody the authority she fears. When she attempts to save him, she is arrested and handcuffed. Witnessing her suffering, the child tries to free her — but both are shot, silencing the last resistance.

Amina's Song

Synopsis

While we follow the daily struggle of a young Egyptian student in Kazan, Amina risks everything for a chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer, which triggers some changes in her life.

Fekry's Thought

Synopsis

A contemporary portrait follows the life of an Alexandrian Framemaker born in the 1930s. Through his personal story, the film explores the profound changes in Egypt over the past 80 years, capturing society's transformation through a dedicated craftsman's eyes.

There is Hope

Synopsis

A young man is thinking about committing suicide, and while recording his last message before his death, he receives a message from his old girlfriend in which she apologizes for her sudden disappearance. However, after hearing the message, he changes his mind and decides to call her.

Come Forth Joseph

Synopsis

Youssef, a young man lost between two cities and two times, carries an old videotape of his childhood memories. During his journey from Damanhour to Alexandria, he listens to a voice message from Nada, a girl also escaping a suffocating world. The two meet in search of salvation, leading them to the house of the father—a lonely man estranged from his son for years. At one table, the three face what they've been running from: themselves, the past, and what remains of love.

Restricted

Synopsis

"Reem," a talented Palestinian runner, succeeds after years of rigorous training in qualifying for the finals of a world championship—only for her dream to shatter against the wall of occupation, which denies her the right to participate. As her dreams crumble, her desperate mother tries to save her from the clutches of depression by taking her to Jericho, but the shadows of occupation pursue them even there. In a pivotal moment, Reem faces a fateful choice: surrender or risk everything to achieve her dream—a decision that may change her life forever.

Elghars

Synopsis

In Hammam Laghzez, in northern Tunisia, two rural women live to the same rhythm of the land. They share the same gestures and the same seasons, but not the same outlook. One moves forward with pride, sustained by love for her land and the dignity of labor; her relationship with nature, family, and time is shaped by acceptance and by love for who she is. The other carries the weight of everyday life, caught between silent fatigue and restrained dreams. Through their voices, their silences, and their gestures, the film reveals an intimate portrait in which rural life becomes a mirror of women's emotions, choices, and inner freedom.

Helwan… why?!

Synopsis

Martin wonders why some people choose the same university as him, and ends up saying that it is not important what brought him and them to this university, but rather that he found himself in this university.

It was a Black Bag

Synopsis

A symbolic short film about a mysterious encounter with a black plastic bag. It reveals how our lives can be filled with unseen burdens that weigh us down — things we may not always notice, but that never truly leave us. Each of us carries a “black bag” that follows us, reminding us of what still lingers within. The film invites reflection on this inner struggle, as well as on the environmental impact of plastic that has become inseparable from our reality.

I can smell a rat

Synopsis

Maribel, 10, is surprised when her drama teacher tells her that she has to play Hamlet in the school play just 2 days before the show, as she is the only one available after the girl who was playing Hamlet got sick and won’t make it. Maribel faces the biggest decision of her life: what to do when she has never taken a part in a play before, other than being a set decoration. She goes home and spends the scariest night of her life with all her fears coming to life.

The Last Bottle

Synopsis

"The reality becomes as an island, where 2 pirates are fighting over the last bottle of rum, The one who lose is the one who will remain sober" A surreal world where a pirate battles with himself on a deserted island over the last bottle that washes ashore. He desperately tries to seize it because of a strong desire to escape his reality, but his own self, which has emerged from him, struggles to drink it before he can. This conflict manifests in strange and illogical surreal scenes that reflect the incomprehensible nature of experienced reality.

Week off

Synopsis

The director borrows a small handheld camera and returns to his hometown, the city of Gabès. He attempts to document events, people, and places through a blend of the present moment and nostalgia.

Returning from the ashes

Synopsis

Returning from the Ashes (2026), directed by Said Khalfi, is a powerful and emotionally resonant short film that explores themes of loss, resilience, and personal rebirth. Through a reflective and atmospheric narrative, the film follows a journey shaped by hardship and transformation, where the past lingers but does not define the future. With a grounded yet evocative visual style, it captures the quiet strength required to rebuild oneself and rise again from adversity.

RED ARM

Synopsis

This film tells the story of a woman struggling to assert herself in a traditional society that places strict limits on the role of women. Despite social, cultural, and economic challenges, our heroine emerges as a strong woman who leads change with her patience, awareness, and determination. Through her personal journey—whether in education, work, or the fight for her rights and the rights of other women—the film reflects a true picture of women’s strength and ability to bring about profound

Adam

Synopsis

Adam is a powerful short film that explores themes of human dignity, loneliness, and social indifference. The film follows a man struggling with hunger and isolation in a society that often overlooks the suffering of ordinary people. Through a stark and symbolic narrative, Adam reflects on the contradictions of modern social systems and questions the false values that shape our world.

Pause

Synopsis

In a nursing home for the elderly, an extraordinary bond forms between Dr. Selim and Hayat, a silent woman who cannot hear or speak, yet clings to one desire: the return of her absent son, Noor. To ease her loneliness, Selim invents imaginary phone calls, translating them into sign language in hopes of rekindling life in her weary heart. As he becomes immersed in the world he creates for her, he begins to see in her the reflection of his late mother, while she finds in him the son who never came.

In The Name Of The Son

Synopsis

A young man struggling with lonliness and alienation towards his father, Accepting a scholarship to study cinema inspires him to rediscover the paradise of his lost father.

Damascus, The smile of Sadness

Synopsis

After the fall of the Syrian regime, a young man returns to his city of Damascus after 14 years of absence, in search of his home, which no longer exists even on the map. In his absurd journey, tinged with nostalgia and wonder, he encounters old friends, and the quest for a lost house turns into a bittersweet confrontation with the past and the present. بعد سقوط النظام السوري، يعود شاب إلى مدينته دمشق بعد غياب ١٤ سنة، باحثاً عن بيته الذي لم يعد موجوداً حتى على الخريطة. في رحلته العبثية الممزوجة بالحنين والدهشة، يلتقي بأصدقائه القدامى، لتتحول رحلة البحث عن منزل مفقود إلى مواجهة مرحة ومؤلمة مع الماضي والحاضر.

Bird Trap

Synopsis

An 8-year-old girl escapes her cruel reality by retreating into a fragile fantasy world, but the boundary between pain and imagination slowly blurs.

Once Upon A Time In Shubra

Synopsis

Ayman is a young man in his late twenties whose life is different from everyone else's, and then his life changes after meeting a girl

The Kingdom of the mono-cell

Synopsis

The kingdom of a cell is a film that speaks primarily of the concept of life in which we live as living beings. The organisms that grow and multiply and move from one place to another have properties and recipes of their own, and non-living organisms that do not grow and do not multiply and do not move. By focusing on the characteristics of life, growth, responsiveness, nutrition, movement, breathing, concentration, and output.

All from one cell

SEA OF HOPE

Synopsis

Sea of Hope" is a short film that unveils the devastating human toll of war through the eyes of civilians trapped in its wake. Focusing on the emotional and physical scars of forced displacement, the film traces the journeys of individuals forced to flee their homes, risking everything as they navigate treacherous paths—where death and drowning loom at every turn—in a desperate quest for safety and a life of dignity

Broken Whispers

Synopsis

Weary of the creative process, an old painter fixes a broken instrument he finds in the rubble. When his students go around looking for someone who can play the instrument, they meet other artists bearing the scars of war

Free Will

Synopsis

Poem written, music composed, video directed by Ghiya Rushidat

Under Occupation

Synopsis

In the shade of occupation, this short film unfolds the tale of a Palestinian child, navigating through the labyrinth of occupation's shadows, where myriad challenges and tribulations punctuate her daily existence. She grapples with the loss of family members and the sanctity of her home, casualties to the ceaseless onslaughts and bombardments by Israeli forces. Witnessing her father's incarceration under the yoke of the occupation's arbitrary measures, the film poignantly portrays the indelible