Arab Cinema at Cannes is Having a Moment — But Don't Call it One
The Cannes Film Festival isn't just the world's grandest stage for cinema — it's also its most finely tuned mirror, reflecting not only the art but the politics, posturing, and latent anxieties of the film world. And this year, between the red carpets and Bella Hadid sightings, one truth has become unmistakable: Arab cinema has arrived, unapologetically, and on its own terms.
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5 Films by Arab Female Directors to Watch in 2025
From All That's Left of You by Cherien Dabis to Where the Wind Comes From by Amel Guellaty
This year, four Arab-directed films are featured across the Festival's official selections — a number that, while conveniently neat, misses the point. This isn't tokenism. It's a tide shift. Arab cinema, long consigned to the circuit's margins — celebrated at home, politely acknowledged abroad — has taken its place at the centre.
Eagles of the Republic, Directed by Tarik Saleh
In Competition, Egyptian-Swedish director Tarik Saleh returns with Eagles of the Republic, a political thriller rendered with the precision of a scalpel and the force of a backhand. If his earlier Cairo Conspiracy whispered its truths, Eagles speaks them plainly — brutal, elegant, and bristling with unease. Fares Fares leads as a disgraced soap actor turned government spokesman, his charm long curdled. It's cynical. It's seductive. It's very Cannes.
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