A Palestinian mother and son arrive in Middle America just as the US is entering Baghdad, charging their welcome to their new homeland with suspicion and hostility.

In a panel discussion moderated by Richard Peña, three contemporary filmmakers will discuss the challenges and prospects facing the new Arab cinema. 

A sultry nightclub singer escapes from a messy divorce into the arms of a French lawyer visiting Beirut, who may just be the spy some people claim he is, in Daniele Arbid’s taut romantic thriller.

Through a series of interlocking stories involving characters each pushed to their limits, Hesham Issawi powerfully captures the national mood that led thousands to Tahrir Square.

Director Ali Mostafa in person!

A groundbreaking first feature film from the Emirates offers a kaleidoscopic tour of contemporary Dubai, tracing the delicate social conventions and expectations that define life for both natives and expats.

Traveling to visit their jailed husbands, three women are left to make their own way through mine-laden mountains, throngs of refugees and rumors of massacres.

Director Susan Yousef in person!

Lyrical and passionate, Susan Youssef’s widely-acclaimed first feature follows star-crossed lovers who must weight their love and desire against society’s expectations.

Faced with the urgent need for an operation he can’t afford, a cab driver tries to re-establish contact with those he once loved in Yahya Al-Abdallah’s award-winning debut feature.

Director Narjiss Nejjar and producer Lamia Chraibi in person on August 24!

The dreams of a free-spirited young woman in a tranquil seaside village are shattered when she’s betrayed by her own brother, in Narjiss Nejjar’s ravishing modern fable.

In these diverse films, spanning the poetic to the realistic, the protagonists engage in a daily struggle for a better life: Sabeel (Khalid Al Mahmood), Land of Heroes (Sahim Omar Kalifa), The Salt Fisherman (Ziad Bakri), The Road to Paradise (Uda Benyamina). 

Nothing is affected more than the relationship between people when societies shift and change. These five films explore how men and women have to renegotiate traditional roles in modern times, and how those without power find ways to coexist with those in power: Garagouz (Abdenour Zahzah), Samir’s Room (Osama Qashoo), The Masseur (Anouar Lahoua), Cheers to You (Soleen Yusef), Fatin Drives Me Crazy (Mohammed Sendi). 

Hard-hitting journalism, as well as a reflection on how we care for those deemed different or difficult, Khoury and Hasnaoui’s prize-wining film explores the world of Egypt’s psychiatric hospitals

A Palestinian filmmaker, long settled abroad, returns to his native Nazareth to confront the ghosts of his nation’s as well as his family’s past.