Arab cinema has always understood that love is rarely simple. It unfolds under social pressure, political rupture, economic constraint and the weight of tradition – yet it persists, often with extraordinary tenderness. From quiet domestic bonds and late-in-life devotion to sweeping melodramas and youthful longing, the region’s filmmakers have depicted romance as deeply human and defiantly hopeful.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, we’ve gathered 14 of Arab cinema’s greatest love stories – spanning decades, countries and styles. Alongside modern classics sit enduring romances from the golden age of Egyptian cinema, films that defined screen love for generations and still resonate today.
Together, they form a reminder that some of the most affecting romances ever put to film have come from this part of the world – stories of connection that endure long after the final frame fades.
1. Shate’e Al-Gharam (1950)
A brief escape to the coast sparks a romance between a schoolteacher and a wealthy man seeking distance from Cairo’s social expectations. Starring Laila Mourad and Hussein Sedki, the film unfolds from its idyllic, sun-kissed beginnings before the characters return to the realities and social expectations of Cairo, where the blossoming romance is tested against the daily pressures of city life. Shate’e Al-Gharam is renowned for striking a balance between escapism and drama.
2. Rod Qalby (1957)
A princess falls in love with the son of the palace gardener, and the duo attempt valiantly to keep their relationship out of sight and earshot of the palace staff. Starring Shukri Sarhan and Mariam Fakhr Eddine, the swooning drama tempers its sweetness with subtle commentary on the rigidities of Egypt’s class boundaries and family structures.
3. Al-Wessada Al-Khalia (1957)
Egyptian crooner Abdel Halim Hafez was viewed as an emerging star on screen and stage when he signed on to play Salah, a young man in grief after his first love, Samira, initially spurns him for his lack of financial security. Years later, they reunite to find their connection remains, but their personal situations have changed.
Salah Abu Seif’s film is considered a minor classic, exploring the subtle resonance that love offers and leaves behind. Hafez’s exquisite song Fi Youm Min El Ayam, featured in the film, was praised for the vulnerability of his performance, with the film confirming his star status.
4. Ayamna El Helwa (1955)
A bitter-sweet coming-of-age story about three childhood friends whose tight bond is tested by romantic entanglements, shifting loyalties and the ambitions those changes unleash.
It stars Abdel Halim Hafez, Ahmed Ramzy, Faten Hamama and Omar Sharif, all now considered titans of the golden age of Egyptian cinema. While the film is full of melodrama, light humour and musical set pieces, its view of love is anything but whimsical. Through the fate of the four friends, it suggests that a great relationship – whether love or friendship - is shaped more by circumstance than destiny, and that it truly grows only once all concerned put the work in.
5. Habiby Da’iman (1980)
One of the most defining dramas of its time, Nour El Sherif and Poussi play a volatile couple whose relationship is opposed by the latter’s family. This tear-jerker traces their break-ups and reconciliations and asks whether the pressures we place on ourselves are shaped more by nature or society.
While Habiby Da’iman makes a case against generational expectations, it also suggests that the values of elders, stoicism and patience may be exactly what is needed to keep relationships alive in an increasingly modern world.
6. Caramel (2007)
Nadine Labaki’s debut feature isn’t a straight romance, but romance swirls everywhere in it. Set inside a Beirut beauty salon, the film follows a group of Lebanese women as they navigate love, friendship and desire, along with the quiet disappointments and small triumphs that bind any close-knit circle.
Their romantic lives unfold in fits and starts, shaped as much by yearning as by hesitation. What gives Caramel its particular charge is how firmly it is rooted in place – a film attentive to Lebanese social mores, and to the subtle negotiations its women make between personal longing and cultural expectation.
7. Sea Shadow (2011)
Set against the stillness of the UAE’s northern coastline, Sea Shadow unfolds with a quiet observational confidence that was rare in Emirati cinema at the time of its 2011 release.
Directed by Nawaf Al Janahi, the film centres on a group of teenagers in Ras Al Khaimah, capturing friendship, boredom and the tentative emergence of romantic feeling. The relationship between the lead characters, Mansoor and Kaltham is understated, shaped by family expectations and social codes rather than dramatic conflict.
8. Barakah Meets Barakah (2016)
When Barakah Meets Barakah premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, it offered global audiences a rare glimpse of everyday life in Saudi Arabia before the reopening of cinemas.
Written and directed by Mahmoud Sabbagh, the film follows a municipal worker and a wealthy social media influencer attempting to pursue a relationship in a society shaped by surveillance, class and social restriction. Shot in Jeddah, its humour is gentle but pointed, using romance as a lens on inequality and public behaviour.
9. Gaza Mon Amour (2020)
Gaza Mon Amour is a romance that unfolds softly against hard edges. Depicting mid-2010s Gaza’s rubble-strewn streets and darkened homes, it finds tenderness where one may least expect it, inspired by the classic 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Issa (Salim Daw), a shy, ageing fisherman, falls for Siham (Hiam Abbass), a widowed seamstress whose quiet strength masks grief and longing. Daw plays Issa with bashful, almost teenage sincerity; Abbass is luminous, her every glance carrying hope and restraint. Politics sits at the margins. What remains central is courtship – hesitant, funny, deeply human – and the radical idea that love can still claim space in any physical context, and at any time of life.
10. A Tale of Love and Desire (2021)
Can desire corrupt the purity of love, or do they work in tandem? That's the question asked in A Tale of Love and Desire, a thoughtful coming-of-age romance from Leyla Bouzid that explores love, identity and cultural expectation.
In Paris, 18-year-old Ahmed, the son of Algerian immigrants, meets Farah, a confident Tunisian student, and is drawn into her world of literature, dreams and possibility. Their connection forces him to rethink the traditions he was raised with and the romantic ideals he has absorbed, especially as he discovers a canon of classical Arabic love poetry he never knew existed. Sensitive, warm and introspective, the film celebrates youthful yearning and the courage it takes to bridge heritage and heart.
11. Hwjn (2023)
Fantasy is an uncommon entry point for Gulf cinema, which makes Hwjn a notable departure. Directed by Yasir Al Yasiri and adapted from Ibraheem Abbas’s popular novel, the 2023 Saudi film reimagines local folklore on an epic scale.
The story follows a young jinn who lives invisibly among humans and forms a bond with a medical student, drawing both into a struggle that bridges two worlds. While visually ambitious, the film’s emotional anchor lies in its central romance.
12. A Sad and Beautiful World (2025)
Across three decades, Nino and Yasmina always find their way back to one another. Directed by Cyril Aris, A Sad and Beautiful World captures their long-gestating romance that uses one relationship to trace three decades of modern Lebanese history – through its wars, brief periods of calm and the emotional toll of living with permanent uncertainty.
Anchored by powerful performances from Hasan Akil and Mounia Akl, the film explores not only a complicated love affair between two people, but also the relationship between a people and the fractured country they call home.
13. A Matter of Life and Death (2025)
A Matter of Life and Death opens with a premise that sounds distinctly unromantic: a woman who wants to die meets a man who wants to kill. Stay with it, though, and the film reveals itself to be unexpectedly tender – as life-affirming and hopeful as its title suggests.
Directed by Anas Ba-Tahaf and written by Sarah Taibah, who also stars, the film stands as a confident example of the idiosyncratic voice shaping modern Saudi cinema and why it is increasingly resonating with audiences around the world.
14. Calle Malaga (2025)
Calle Malaga is a tender later-in-life romance from Maryam Touzani – and one that resists the over-sweetened sentimentality often attached to stories of its kind.
It follows Maria Angeles, a 79-year-old lifelong resident of Tangier, who is unsettled when her daughter arrives from Madrid, intent on selling the apartment she has called home for decades. Determined to stay rooted, Maria clings to her community, her memories and her hard-won independence. In doing so, she rediscovers desire and companionship on her own terms, proving that love does not dim with age – it simply finds new forms.
