Idioms Film

Ibrahim: a fate to define from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

A Film by Lina Alabed | 75 min Feature Documentary | Arabic w/ English Subtitles | Produced by SakaDo and Idioms Film | Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Denmark, Slovenia

CPH:DOX 2019 - World Premier

In 1987, when Lina Alabed was six years old, her Palestinian father Ibrahim set off on a short mission. He never came back. He was a member of the Abu Nidal group, also known as 'The Revolutionary Council', and her father's past is still haunting the family. His disappearance was not something that was talked about - until now. Lina Alabed's film has to a great extent become a letter to a father she never really knew, but it is also a warm and personal family tale with temperament and character. Camera in hand, Lina has broken down the walls between herself, her Egyptian mother and the rest of her large family. Even though Alabed leafs backwards in the family album to find answers to her father's disappearance, her film mostly lives in the present. And where other films about family traumas are sentimental from the start, 'Ibrahim' is a story that also makes way for laughter and a liberating look at the individual differences that make up a family. The big question, however, is still how the father's decision has affected the adult Lina's own life choices.

Off Frame aka Revolution unitl Victory- Official Trailer from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

Production of Idioms Film, coproduced by Monkey Bay Production, in collaboration with Subversive Films, Sak A DO, Tulpa productions, with the support of Arab Funds for Arts and Culture, recipient of post-production grant from Doha Film Institute, recipient of development grant from Eurimage, recipient of development support from Dubai Film Connection and In association with Screen Institute Beirut, with the support of Palestinian Cultural Fund

Toronto International Film Festival (World Premier) Sept 2016
Dubai International Film Festival (MINA Premier) Dec 2016
Berlinale Forum Expanded (European Premier) Feb 2016
Cinema Du Reel (French Premier) March 2017
Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations Screening, March 2017
Beirut Cinema Days (Lebanese Premier) March 2017
Haifa Independent Film Festival (Palestinian Premier), March 2017
Sharjah Biennale 13 ,Screening, April 2017
Oslo Arab Cinema Days (Norwegian Premier), April 2017
Berlin Arab Film Festival ,Screening, April 2017
Image Forum Festival (Japanese Premier), April 2017
Cairo Cinema Days (Egyptian Premier) May 2017
Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival (Gaza Premier) May 2017
International Workers Film Festival, Istanbul (Turkish Premier) May 2017
Lima Independent Film Festival (Peruvian Premier) June 2017
Shubbak festival of Arab Culture, London (UK Premier) July 2017
HOME, Manchester ,Screening, July 2017
Museum of the Moving Image (USA Premier) July 2017
New Horizons International Film festival, Wroclaw (Polish Premier), Aug 2018
Arabian Nights, Danish Film Institute (Danish Premier) Aug 2017
12a Mostra Mundo Árabe de Cinema, Sao Paolo (Brazilian Premier) Aug 2017
Latin Arab International Film Festival, Buenos Ares (Argentinian Premier) Sept 2017
Toronto Palestine Film Festival ,Screening, Sept 2017
Malmo Arab Film Festival, (Swedish Premier) Oct 2017
Aegean Docs (Greek Premier) Oct 2017
Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival, Screening, Oct 2017
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Screening, Oct 2017
DC Palestinian Art and Film Festival (Washington DC premier) Oct 2017
Arab Film Festival, San Francesco (Californian Premier) Oct 2017
Boston Palestine Film Festival, Screening, Oct 2017
Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival (Austrian Premier) Oct 2017
Cinemed, Montpellier Mediterranean Festival, Screening, Oct 2017
Arabic and Mediterranean Film Festival of Catalonia (Spanish Premier) Nov 2017

“ … and for those who suffer from invisibility, camera would be their weapon.”

“Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory” traces the fragments of a revolution, splicing images then from a dream for freedom, using films from the Palestinian struggle cinema, a term used for films produced in relation to the Palestinian revolution during the period between 1968 and 1982. For the outside world, these films represented a model of a people in struggle, explaining why they are fighting and against whom. But for Palestinians these films marked the transformation of their identity, from a refugee to that of a freedom fighter. wither its staged or not, wither its personal or collective.

The film borrows moments from a selection of militant films. These shots were edited together in one timeline , the only coherent relation between all the shots, clips, sequences is that they all lay on the boarders between fiction and propaganda, dream and reality, in order to represent a narrative of a people in struggle. As history is written/recorded while the camera rolls, the film negative not only captures what is before the camera, but it also indicates to what is missing from its cadre.

The Palestinian revolution collaborated with filmmakers, actors and activists from Syria, Italy, UK, Lebanon, France, Germany, Argentina amongst many others, and made partnerships with institutions in Berlin, Moscow, Baghdad and Cuba. Despite their prolific output, very few of their works remain. Yet there is much to learn from revisiting this era and piecing together the narrative of Palestinian militant cinema. “Off Frame” aims to fill this gap in the collective memory, making the past an urgent element of the present day analysis of Palestinian cinema. The film attempts to bring forth all that was happening behind the cameras and the creation of these films.

Resorting to cinema’s temporal nature and time being an elastic concept, “Off Frame” assumes the role of a time machine, transporting the audience back in time, by opening a portal into the life, hopes and desires of a people living in a revolution, fighting to be recognised and to reclaim control over their representation.

Film Reviews

Hollywood Reporter, Cinemascope.com, MiddleEast Eye, AL-Khaleej, Bianet, Al-Jazeera

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A Film by Mohamed Jabaly | 80 min Feature Documentary | Arabic w/ English subtitles | Produced by JABFilm & Idioms Film | Palestine & Norway

Bergen International Film Festival, 20-28 Sept 2016 - In Competition

Wales International Youth Festival, Sept 21

Nordkapp Film Festival, Honningsvåg, Finnmark, Norway, 14-18 Sept 2016

Screening Rights Film Festival, Birmingham UK, Sept 17th 2016

Bertha DocHouse, London, Aug 26 - Sept 1 2016 - DocHouse First

Otherfield Festival 2016, Suffolk UK, July 31st - Special Screening

Sheffield Doc Fest, June 12th 2016 - World Premier

Synopsis

A raw, first-person account of the last war in Gaza in the summer of 2014. Mohamed Jabaly, a young man from Gaza City, joins an ambulance crew as war approaches, looking for his place in a country under siege, where at times there seems to be no foreseeable future. While thousands of things are published on the recurring violence in Gaza, the stories behind them remain hidden. Not this one.

Director's Statement

The film will be a personal story, as seen through my eyes and the people with whom I worked during the war. The film is about human connections and does not seek to campaign for any political party or policy, nor to assign blame. This is not because I don’t see the urgency of the political debate or the importance of accountability, but because I am a storyteller who believes that personal stories can open the way, show us what we have in common- human decency and human dignity.

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OUROBOROS TEASER from Basma Alsharif on Vimeo.

Locarno Festival, World Premier, Aug 2017

Toronto Palestine Film Festival, Canadian Premier, 2017

BFI London Film Festival, UK Premier, Oct 2017

Director's Statement

Ouroboros is an homage to the Gaza Strip, to the possibility of hope beyond hopelessness. Ouroboros, the symbol of the snake eating its tail, is both end and beginning: death as regeneration.
A 74-minute experimental narrative film that turns the destruction of Gaza into a story of heartbreak, Ouroboros asks what it means to be human when humanity has failed.

Taking the form of a love story, Ouroboros’ central character is Diego Marcon, a man with a newly broken heart who embarks on a circular journey to shed his pain only to experience it, again and again. In the course of a single day, his travel weaves together Native American territories, the ancient Italian city of Matera, a castle in Brittany, and the ruins of the Gaza Strip together into a single landscape. In Ouroboros, Diego’s ultimate failure to understand defeat is at the heart of the human condition a struggle that leads as much to failure as it does to survival.

By challenging the aesthetics of representing trauma, Ouroboros aims not only to change our understanding of cinema but to open a new chapter in how we see the Middle East. This is a film about the future.

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Awards

Winner Special Jury Prize, Winner FIPRESCI Award for Best Documentary at Dubai International Film Festival Muhr Arab Documentary UAE, 2013

Winner Jury Documentary Award at Malmo Arab Film Festival Sweden, 2013

Winner Gold Hugo Award at Chicago Film Festival, 2013

Winner Best Documentary Film Award at Al Ard Doc Film festival Cagliari Italy, 2013

Screenings

2014

Karama Human Rights Film festival Palestine
Checkpoint Helsinki Finland
One World – International Human Rights Film Festival Prague, Czech Republic
Eye on Palestine – Arts & Film Festival Belgium
Films from Palestine Amman, Jordan
Salaam Film & Dialog, Denmark
Arab Latin film festival,Buenos Aires- Argentina
AMAL film festival- Santiago de compostila,Spain
Festival Des Libertes, Brussels, Belgium
Doclisboa, Portugal
Salaam Film Festival, Copenhagen – Denmark
Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia
LATINARAB International Film Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2013

Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya - Lebanon
London Palestine Film festival - UK
Docs Barcelona - Spain
Home works 6 - Lebanon
Edinburgh International film festival - UK
Jerusalem Festival - Palestine
Franco-Arab Festival in Ramallah - Palestine
Festival des cinemas Arabes – IMAG’IMA - Institute du Monde Arabe - France
Sarajevo International Film Festival Human rights day - Bosnia Herzegovina
Malmo Arab Film festival – Sweden
Milano International Film Festival - Italy
Toronto Palestine Film Festival - Canada
Chicago Film Festival - USA
Boston Palestine Film Festival - USA
DC Palestine Festival of Arts and Films - USA
Muestra de cine Palestino - Spain
Palestine: filmer c’est exister - Switzerland
Al Ard Doc Film festival – Cagliari, Italy
Middle East: what can cinema do? - France
Festival International du Cinémad’Alger – Jury mention “Filmer à tout prix” Algeria

Synopsis
The film unravels adventures of various attempts by individuals and groups during their search for gaps in the Wall in order to permeate and sneak past it. Lookouts, fear, angst, running, permeation, jumping off, crawling, passing through dark passages, are stages of a complex process of passing through to the "other side" and require a very specific state of mind. Some attempts end in failure, and others in success. Some are caught by the Israeli soldiers and others reach their destination. It's a cat and mouse game, in which failure leads to more persistence and success is an antithesis to cat's theories of security.

Credits
Director Khaled Jarrar, Producer Sami Shanaah, Production Company Idioms Film, Cinematographer Khaled Jarrar, Editor Geaton Harem, Sound Design Carl Svensson.

Director's Biography

Born in Jenin, Khaled Jarrar completed his studies in interior design at the Palestine Polytechnic University in 1996. He then started working in photography and is known for his exhibition in 2004 at the Howarra and Qalandya checkpoints where he put up his photos in a manner to be seen by the Israeli soldiers. He also started making films and videos; his first short video "Journey 110" had a big success and was selected at several international festivals and art galleries (Basel Art 41, Instant Video, London Film Festival). In 2011 he graduated from the International Academy of Art (Palestine). As a visual artists, Jarrar works with photography, video and performance. He lately became famous for his project "Live and work in Palestine" which consisted in creating the first unofficial Palestinian stamp that he uses to stamp official passports of people from all nationalities around the world.

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A Film by Alaa Al Ali | 9 min Fiction Short | Arabic w/ English/French/Spanish Subtitles| Palestine

Arabic Media

Al-Hayat

2015

Malmo Arab Film Festival

festival Diritti Umani

2014

March

Eye on Palestine- Brussels

Oct

18^th Arab Film Festival- San Francisco- USA

Boston Palestine Film Festival- Boston- USA

DC Palestine Films & Arts Festival- Washington DC- USA

Dec

London Palestine Film Festival- London- UK

Dubai International Film Festival- Dubai- UAE

The Jerusalem Fund- Washington DC- USA “Special Screening”

Reel Palestine- Sharjah- UAE “Special Screening”

To transport a newly purchased sofa to your home is an easy task.
In a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, this task becomes a Sisyphean journey revealing the complexities and absurdities of everyday life in the Shatila camp in Lebanon.

About the Director
Alaa Al Ali is a writer, filmmaker and multimedia artist from Palestinian origin. He was born in Burj Al Barajneh, a refugee camp in Lebanon. Alali worked with local and international artists in making films and multimedia works, with focus on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, Alaa is now living in Sweden since 2012.

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Apartment 10-14 from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

Apartment 10/14

dir. Tarazan and Arab Nasser

Synopsis:

It’s his birthday. While waiting for her to arrive, he imagines the moment when he first sees her. What will her gift be? As he shifts between a dream and reality he receives a visit by a strange old man.

Biography:

Budding filmmakers and identical twin brothers Tarzan and Arab, real names Ahmed and Mohamed Abu Nasser, were born in 1988 in Gaza. After they graduated from Al-Aqsa University with a BA degree in Fine Arts, the brothers began to develop their filmic works. In 2010, Tarzan and Arab received the A. M. Qattan Foundation's prestigious Young Artist of the Year Award for their project Gazawood. They co-founded with Rashid Abdelhamid, a Palestinian architect and designer, “Made in Palestine Project” an independent arts initiative to create and promote contemporary visual art with a focus on Palestine. Their short film “Condom Lead” was competing in the short film competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. They are currently developing a number of film projects.

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Pink Bullet from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

2015

Festival Cine Palestine (France)

Palestine Reel Screen (UAE)

Festival Cinéma Arabe (Netherlands)

Eye on Palestine Festival (Belgium)

Film Lab Film Festival (Palestine)

Cinema Sayyara Screen (Palestine)

2014

London Palestine Film Festival (UK)

Digital Marrakesh Festival (Morocco)

Arab Film Festival (USA)

Synopsis

Ali wakes up jumbled by the construction noise coming from outside, and the disturbing dream he just had. Little did he know that his day would be shuddery as the way it started, yet with little twists.

Director’s Statement
Pink Bullet is an interpretation of how I see young people dealing with a bit life matters in a fictional way. Yet, I realize the countless complications in story as a display for the actual situation in my city, Ramallah.

Cast
Atta Nasser, Hazem Sharif, Husam Azzeh and Fida’ Kiwan.

Crew
Production Designer Rami Arda, Cinematographer Trevor Thomas, Make Up Noor Abed, Sound Recording Ashraf Mashni, Sound Design Mohammed Aweidah, Sound Mixing boikutt, Coloring Serene Isa, VFX Subhi dajani ‘Lilitt Films’, Producers Mohanad Yaqubi & Sami Shana’a, and Line Producer Bassam Jerbawi.

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Synopsis

Like many people of his generation, Ali has decided to run away from the hardships of war. Along his way, he meets a strange person in a bus station: an encounter that will change his perspective.

Cast

Salim Dau & Adham Nu'man

Crew

Producer Sami Said, Cinematographer Raphael Pannier, Production Designer Rami Arda, Production Manager Bassam Jarbawi, Sound by Carl Svensson, Visual Effects by Subhi Dajani, Editor Mohanad Yacoubi, Camera and Electrical Department Ataf Al Akhras, Faisal Barghouthi, and Ramzi Hazboun

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Awards & Nominations

Winner, Prix UIP, Rotterdam 2013
Winner, Best Short from the Arab World, Abu Dhabi 2013
Winner, Best Short Film, Yerevan 2014
Nominee, Tiger Award for Short Film, Rotterdam 2013
Nominee, Best Short Film, European Film Awards, December 2013
Nominee, Alwan for the Arts Film Award 2013Abu Dhabi

Screenings

Abu Dhabi

29/10/13 - Abu Dhabi Film Festival

Argentina
10/11/12 - Latinarab Film Festival

Australia
04/08/13 - Melbourne International Film Festival

Belgium
12/10/13 - Film Festival Ghent
29/03/13 - Eye on Palestine Festival

Bosnia
19/08/13 - Sarajevo International Film Festival
15/08/14 - Sarajevo International Film Festival

Bulgaria
21/01/14 - Menar Film Festival
10/03/14 - Sofia International Film Festival

Canada
31/08/13 - Montreal World Film Festival
29/09/13 - Toronto Palestine Film Festival

China
25/04/14 - EU Shorts Festival, Macau

Colombia
01/05/14 - Festival de Cine Europeo

Croatia
09/07/14 - Mediterranean Film Festival, Split
12/07/14 - Pula Film Festival
23/08/14 - Avvantura

Czech Republic
8/05/13 - iShorts / Prague

Egypt
19/03/13 - Mosireen / Cairo
26/03/13 - Townhouse / Cairo
04/05/14 - Palestine Month, the Netherlands Institute
14/06/14 - Shorts Revisited, Zawya

Finland
10/03/14 - Tampere Film Festival

France
01/02/14 - Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival
10/09/14 - Cinambule

Germany
20/03/14 - The Arab Film Festival, Berlin

Italy
09/08/13 - La Guarimba International Film Festival
30/08/13 - Circuito OFF / Venice
05/10/13 - Corti & Cigarettes / Rome

Morocco
18/09/14 - Opening film, Assilah Film Festival

Netherlands
29/01/13 - International Film Festival Rotterdam

Norway
16/03/14 - Minimalen Film Festival
12/06/14 - Norwegan Short Film Festival, Grimstad

Palestine
08/03/13 - Israeli Apartheid Week / Gaza
06/06/13 - The Sakakini Centre / Ramallah
19/11/13 - Al Kasaba Short Film Week / Ramallah

Poland
25/05/14 - Krakow Film Festival

Russia
03/08/13 - Open Cinema Festival / St Petersburg

Serbia
29/11/13 - Videomedeja

Slovakia
18/10/13 - Festival Acko

South Korea
01/05/14 - Busan Film Festival

Spain
13/06/13 - Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca
08/11/13 - Sevilla Festival de Cine Europeo
17/11/13 - Bilbao Zinebi 55
18/09/14 - Tenerife Short Film Festival

Sweden
19/03/14 - CinemAfrica

Turkey
19/11/13 - Izmir Short Film Festival
20/09/14 - Adana Film Festival

UK
04/05/13 - London Palestine Film Festival
24/07/13 - The Mosaic Rooms / London
01/09/13 - Bold Tendencies / London
15/09/13 - The Invisible Line / London
03/10/13 - Raindance Film Festival / London
08/12/13 - Bristol Palestine Film Festival
15/03/14 - PalFest Comes to London
22/06/14 - East End Film Festival

USA
02/10/13 - Boston Palestine Film Festival
15/03/14 - Arab American National Museum
12/04/14 - Athens Int Film + Video Festival
20/04/14 - Chicago Palestine Film Festival

Synopsis

He has returned to Palestine. Caught between his brother's past and his child's future, one man's choice triggers catastrophe for his family.

Director’s Statement

Palestine, as a subject, can feel inaccessible and overburdened with history. Too often genuine drama and style is lost in ideology and political correctness. But film-makers have a responsibility, art has an obligation to tell people's stories, to tell the stories that are being buried. With this short I think we are telling a relevant and resonant story, and telling it in a way that is both challenging and dramatic. Having worked in Palestine for the last five years, living there for a month or two each year, I have been constantly thinking about how cinema - our most immersive artform - can hope to recreate even a fraction of the Palestinian experience. It is an experience that is at once deeply complex and remarkably simple. It is both cinematically physical and invisibly psychological. It is living forever in an uncertain present while both the narratives of the past and the possibilities of the future are under attack. It is an experience that needs to be told and retold thousands of different ways - this is just one of them.

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Awards

Winner - 1st Prize Muhr Awards - Dubai International Film Festival

Winner - Best International Short Film - Sonoma International Film Festival

Winner - Best International Student Short - Mexico International Film Festival

Special Jury Recognition - Aspen Shortsfest 2010 International Competition

Screenings

New York International Film Festival

Sundance International Film Festival

Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival

Festival International du Cinéma Méditerranèen de Tétouan - Marocco

Arizona International Film Festival

The French-Omani Center in Muscat Special Programs

Norwegian Short Film Festival

Palm Springs Short Film Fest

Los Angeles Film Festival

Arab Film Festival In San Francisco

UrbanWorld Film Festival

Ireland International Film Festival

Cambridge International Film Festival

Calgary International Film Festival

Starz Denver International Film Festival

Aye Aye Film Festival, France

Boston-Palestine Film Festival

Circolo del Cinema "Immagini" - Sant'Antioco – Italy
Al Kasabah, Ramallah Palestine
Arab American film festival – Detroit
32nd Montpellier International Festival of Mediterranean Film (Cinemed)
Bahamas International Film Festival
V international film festival, Russia
Interfilm Berlin - Kuki
FlickerFest, Australia

Synopsis

Eleven-year-old shepherd boy, Yousef, would rather play with his pet gazelle MishMish than help his ailing father. Desperate for money, Yousef's father decides to sell his prized sheep to customers from the city, but the sheep is no where to be found. While wrestling with Yousef, MishMish charges the sheep, killing it. In order to keep MishMish safe, Yousef eliminates the evidence and implicates his brother’s dog, Max. Just when Yousef thinks he's covered his tracks, his father decides to kill Max. Will Yousef confess, or will he let Max take the fall? Roos Djaj is the coming of age story that explores the fine line between taking responsibility for ones actions and lying in order to protect oneself.

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9 Shorts | 59 min | Arabic w/ English, French, Italian Subtitles | Produced by Idioms Film & Rosa Luxemberg Stiftung - Regional Office Palestine | Palestine

2014

March

Eye on Palestine- Brussels

Oct

18^th Arab Film Festival- San Francisco- USA

Boston Palestine Film Festival- Boston- USA

DC Palestine Films & Arts Festival- Washington DC- USA

Dec

London Palestine Film Festival- London- UK

Dubai International Film Festival- Dubai- UAE

The Jerusalem Fund- Washington DC- USA “Special Screening”

Reel Palestine- Sharjah- UAE “Special Screening”

Synopsis

A collection of short films by nine Palestinian filmmakers, SUSPENDED TIME was conceived as a way to understand the status quo of image production 20 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Oslo's most obvious impact is that its 'vision' was designed to accommodate Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Others living in refugee camps in the surrounding Arab countries, in the Diaspora and Palestinians living in the 1948 territories were excluded, and their rights disregarded. SUSPENDED TIME mirrors this state of fragmentation through the lenses of the filmmakers, who reflect on the Oslo Accords.

Filmmakers:

Alaa Al Ali - Journey of a Sofa (9 min)

Anim Nayfeh - Interference (11 min)

Arab & Tarzan Nasser - Apartment 10/14 (8 min)

Asma Ghanem - Long War (2 min)

Assem Nasser - From Ramallah (4 min)

Ayman Azraq - Oslo Syndrom (6 min)

Mahdi Fleifel - Twenty Handshakes for Peace (3 min)

Muhannad Salahat - Message to Obama (7 min)

Yazan Khalili - Leaving Oslo (4 min)

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The Shooter (Ihab Jadallah) Trailer from realeyztv on Vimeo.

2010

Arab Filmfestival Tuebingen (DE)

2009

FID Marseille (FR), Festival Corto Del MED Avignon (FR)

Arte Giovane Video Festival Turin (IT)

Arab Film Festival Berlin (DE)

Arab Shorts, Goethe Institute Cairo (EG)

Festival of Contemporary Arab Cinema Bogota (CO)

What can Cinema Do?, Paris (FR)

2008

Tampere Film Festival (FI)

London Palestine Film Festival (GB)

Houston Palestine Film Festival (USA)

Cannes Film Festival (FR)

Shoot Me Film Festival (NL)

International Short Film Festival Hamburg (DE)

Adana Golden Ball Film Festival (TR)

Digital Barcelona Film Festival (ES)

Paris Cinema (FR)

Boston Palestine Film Festival (FR)

Amal Film Festival Galicia (ES)

Arab Film Festival (USA)

International Short Film Festival Detmold (DE)

Winterthur short Film Festival (CH)

Girona International Short Film Festival (ES)

Toronto Palestine Film Festival (CA)

Tout Courts, Aix-en-Provence (FR)

Synopsis

Palestine is occupied by the international media and is the stage for sensational news stories. Palestinians are presented as “performers” in these dramatic international evening newscasts and Palestinian filmmakers find themselves compelled to comply with their violent “meta-script” and its good-guy and bad-guy-narratives.

Director’s Statement

Ihab Jadallah both parodies and rejects this constraint. THE SHOOTER rebells against the image of Palestine as propagated by the international media and subverts this staged representation of his country and its people. In his film the “performer” becomes active: he departs from the official script and gradually breaks out of character.

Cast

Bashar Hasuneh, Laura Ribeiro, and hab Jadallah.

Crew

Production Designer Shadi Habib Allah, Cinematographer Mathieu Cauville and Mario Zugair, Editor Mohanad Yaqubi, Sound Recording Sami Saed, Music Ramallah Underground, Producer Idioms Film, and Line Producer Sami Said.

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HABIBI Trailer from HABIBI on Vimeo.

Awards

Winner Best Film Winner FIPRESCI Winner Best Actress Winner Best Editor at Dubai International Film Festival 2011 Muhr Arab Feature

Winner Camera NOVO at Cinema NOVO Festival 2012

Winner NETPAC for Asian Cinema at Bangalore International Film Festival 2012

Winner Grand Prize in Emerging Narrative at IFP Independent Film Week

Official Selection

Venice Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival
Dubai International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Göteborg International Film Festival
Miami International Film Festival
Human Rights Watch Travelling Film Festival
Movies That Matter Travelling Film Festival

Screenings

2014

Uruguay International Film Festival.
Syracuse University.
Casa Árabe, Madrid.

Boston University.
Casa Árabe, Madrid.

2013

Gaza, at the Institut Français de Gaza, on December 18.

Old Dominion University.

Mostra Mundo Arabe de Cinema.

Jacob Burns Film Center.

Chicago Palestine Film Festival.
Houston Palestine Film Festival.

Providence College with Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Kenyon College as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Arab Film Festival, Texas.
Night Gala film at Birds Eye View in London.
BFI Southbank.
Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in Durham, NC as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as part of the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival.
Austin Film Society.

Habibi screens at the University of California, Merced as part of the
Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival.
Arab American National Museum in Michigan.

2012

Chennai International Film Festival.
Bangalore International Film Festival.
Bahamas International Film Festival.
Joel D. Valdez Main Library in Tucson as part of the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival.

reRun Theater in Brooklyn.
Ljubljana International Film Festival.
Jaffa at Al Saraya Theater.
University of Redlands.
Sheffield Cinema Palestino Film Festival.
Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival.
Latin Arab Film Festival.

Toronto Palestine Film Festival.
Boston Palestine Film Festival.
Córdoba African Film Festival.
Oslo Films from the South.

Ro-IFF, Romania.

Dubai International Film Festival Focus.

Brasilia International Film Festival.

Arab Film Festival in Australia.
Franco Palestine Film Festival.
Lincoln Center as part of Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Ramallah Al Kasaba Theater
Bethlehem Dar Annadwa.
Panorama in Paris.
Turkey Flying Broom International Film Festival.
Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, CA.

Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.
Princeton University.
Johns Hopkins University.
University of Massachusetts - Amherst.
Wesleyan University.

Miami International Film Festival

Toronto Human Rights Watch.
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, Geneva.
Henderson State University, Arkadelphia.
University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Cinema Novo Festival, Brugge.
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London.
That Matter Film Festival, The Hague.
Festival Intl du cinéma Méditerranéen de Tétouan, Morocco.
Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil.

FEST, Belgrade.

Aflam with a screening in Abu Dhabi
American Independents in Berlin.

Göteborg International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival

2011

Arab International Film Festival in Oran.

Busan International Film Festival.

Reykjavik International Film Festival.
Toronto International Film Festival.

Venice Film Festival, Venice Days.

2010

Doha Tribeca Film Festival

IFP Lab Showcase in New York

25 New Faces Tacoma, WA

41st Poetry International Festival in Rotterdamse Schouwburg; Rotterdam, NL

Synopsis

Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. 'Habibi' is a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable 'Majnun Layla.' The full Arabic title is 'Habibi Rasak Kharban,' which translates as “Darling, something’s wrong with your head.”

Cast

Maisa Abd Elhadi, Kais Nashif, Yosef Abu Wardeh, Amer Khalil.

Crew

Production Designer Bashar Hasuneh, Cinematographer PJ Raval, Editors Man Kit Lam and Susan Youssef, Sound Recording Louis Storme, Sound Design Ryan M. Price, Producer Susan Youssef, and Line Producer Misbah Deeb.

Other info

Habibi won Best Film, FIPRESCI Prize, Best Actress, and Best Editor at the Dubai International Film Festival in the Arab Muhr Competition. Additionally, it received the Camera Novo, the highest prize at the Cinema Novo Festival, Brugge. Habibi is also the recipient of the Grand Prize in the Emerging Narrative program at IFP’s Independent Film Week and is supported by Co-Producer Dubai Entertainment and Media Organization, Zain, Cinereach, Austin Film Society, Princess Grace Foundation - USA, Fonds BKVB, Rooftop Films, Institute of International Education, Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Funding Exchange, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Idioms Film, Panasonic, fiscal sponsor Women Make Movies, Richard Linklater, and many other generous donors.

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Synopsis

Exit is a collaboration between Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi and French choreographer Jean Gaudin. Taking the London Underground as its location, the piece traverses genres - appearing part site specific dance performance, part atmospheric architectural exploration, and part video art. Featuring stunning cinematography and an award winning original score, Exit arrives at an accomplished fusion of the organic and the concrete by playing on the dancer's bodily and emotional encounter with a claustrophobia underworld of stark lines and threatening machinery.

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The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers (TRAILER) from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

23 minutes | 2020| Palestine, Belgium
DCP | super 8, 35mm, HD video, stereo no spoken dialogues, poems in English

directed and produced by Milena Desse, cinematography: Mashal Kawasmi and Milena Desse, sound recording Montaser Abu Alul, Chloe Despax and Sylvie Bouteiller, editing Milena Desse, sound design and mixing Sylvie Bouteiller, consulting producer Mohanad Yaqubi

developed in the frame of a residency at Sakiya- Art Science Agriculture, Ein Qiniya, Palestine

with the support of A. M. Qattan Foundation, WBI - Wallonie-Bruxelles International, KASK- School of the arts Gent, Idioms Film, Labokube

FID Marseille (World Premier) July 2020

Layers successively overlap on top of each other. The geological layering of portions of earth allow one to travel back in time. But the selection, the choice of which layer deserves to be looked at is nothing but political. To blind oneself to one of them, to erase it from the narrative, is to exploit the past to justify the present.

On a land perpetually threatened by colonial appropriation, the transmission of history and narratives plays a peculiar and vital role. The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers is an essay-film which paints a portrait of a place on a hill above Ein Qiniya, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, with two houses from the late Ottoman period. Looking at the objects uncovered during their renovations through a magnifying lens, the film performs the creation of narratives, through dynamic processes of revelation and disappearance.

[caption id="attachment_332" align="alignnone" width="300"] Director Portrait[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_333" align="alignnone" width="300"] Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH[/caption]