A rich selection of films by Arab directors will be shown at the 69th BFI London Film Festival, which runs from October 8 to 19 in the English capital.
Spanning documentary, drama and shorts, the programme brings urgent stories and fresh voices from Palestine, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan and the UAE to British audiences.
Here are the 13 films from the Arab world set to screen at the festival this year.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Kaouther Ben Hania follows her acclaimed Four Daughters with a hybrid feature centred on the harrowing true story of five-year-old Hind Rajab, whose phone call from a car trapped in Gaza shocked the world.
Ben Hania’s film, which blends documentary and reconstruction, arrives in London after winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Speaking to The National from Venice, Ben Hania said: “Cinema cannot bring Hind back, nor can it erase the atrocity committed against her, but it can preserve her voice, make it resonate across borders, because her story is not hers alone.”
Sink (Gharaq)
Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie’s striking feature is set on the country’s windswept outskirts. Duraie previously earned attention with the short Give Up the Ghost, which premiered in Venice and won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short.
With the backing of the Doha Film Institute, she has moved on to features with a story rooted in contemporary family struggles.
Palestine 36
Annemarie Jacir’s film is set against the backdrop of the 1936 revolt during British rule. The cast includes Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, Jeremy Irons, Liam Cunningham and Dhafer L’Abidine.
The film is being shown in London, following screenings at the Venice and Toronto festivals. Jacir has been a central figure in Palestinian cinema for two decades, previously directing Salt of This Sea, When I Saw You and Wajib.
The Vile
Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari returns to feature films for the first time since his debut Zinzana. In this film he explores the subtle horrors of broken trust between a married couple.
Promised Sky
Following her breakout Under the Fig Trees, Tunisian director Erige Sehiri returns with a drama about three Ivorian women forging a life in Tunisia. The film opened the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes this year.
Tetes Brulees
Tunisian-Danish filmmaker Maja Ajmia Yde Zellama’s feature debut is about a 12-year-old girl who grapples with her older brother’s sudden death, finding solace in her creativity, resilience and the support of her brother’s friends as she navigates the grieving process.
The President’s Cake
The film by Iraqi director Hasan Hadi had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It won the Camera d’Or for best first feature and was also honoured with the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award, a rare double for a debutant and a historic milestone for Iraqi cinema.
The film follows nine-year-old Lamia, who must collect ingredients to bake a cake in honour of Saddam Hussein's birthday – or face severe consequences. The film stars Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat and Rahim AlHaj.
A Sad and Beautiful World
Cyril Aris’s sweeping romance, set over three decades in Lebanon, explores love, resilience and the pull between leaving and staying. The film starring Lebanese filmmaker Mounia Akl and Hasan Akil in the lead tells the story of a couple who must decide if they want to build a family despite the tragedies that has befallen their country.
Calle Malaga
This movie by Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani stars Spanish screen legend Carmen Maura and is set in Tangier. The film premiered in Venice and won the Audience Prize. Touzani’s sensitive direction and focus on women’s inner lives continue the themes that defined her previous work.
Khartoum
A hybrid of real and filmed footage, Khartoum amplifies the voices of five residents forced to flee the Sudanese capital’s conflict. The project’s roots stretch back to on-the-ground footage and testimonies, assembled into a tapestry of memory and hope. The directors are Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad and Timeea Mohamed Ahmed along with creative director and writer Philip Cox.
With Hasan in Gaza
A lost film reel is the starting point for Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza. Shot in 2001 and rediscovered years later, the footage is reworked into a meditation on memory, loss and the persistence of everyday life.
Aljafari, the Palestinian filmmaker known for Port of Memory and Recollection, uses cinema as an archival tool against erasure. The film screens in London following its appearance at the Toronto festival.
Radius Catastrophe
Part of the Experimenta selection, Jad Youssef’s short is described as a coastal odyssey in which an alien figure drifts along the Lebanese shoreline. The 19-minute film situates Lebanon’s landscape as a site of myth, memory and transformation.
Morning Circle
Also screening in the Experimenta selection, Basma Al Sharif’s 18-minute short explores image, repetition and resistance. The Palestinian filmmaker, long celebrated for gallery and festival work, uses formal precision to probe the politics embedded in everyday routines and gestures.
