Berlinale: Ten Arab and Middle Eastern films screening at this year's festival

The National

11-02-2025

The Berlin International Film Festival, better known as Berlinale, returns next month for its 75th year. Running from February 13 until February 23, it is one of the first major festivals in a calendar year, and has traditionally served as a launching point for films from the Mena region. Sitting as jury president at this year's festival is American filmmaker Todd Haynes, best known for his films Safe, Carol and May December. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho's next film, Mickey 17, is set to premiere at the festival. This year's event will also feature several films from the Middle East, both in the feature and short film categories. Here are the regional titles screening at the 2025 Berlinale. French-Lebanese filmmaker Wissam Charaf follows up Dirty Difficult Dangerous, which had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with Holiday. It is a coming-of-age story set in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. Taking place in 1986, the film follows a boy named Chadi, 13, whose family flee the capital to live with his aunt in the south. "It's the diary of Chadi, a 13-year-old Lebanese kid who discovers life, sexuality, love and friendship in a context of war and violence,' Charaf told Variety. The events in the film don't unfold 'in a dramatic way, but like a series of absurd and incomprehensible incidents". The film will have its premiere in the Berlinale Co-Production Market. German-Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin's film Yunan will be competing for the Golden Bear in the festival's main competition. The film follows an exiled and depressed Arab author who travels to a remote island in the North Sea. The film stars Ali Suliman, Tom Wlaschiha and Hanna Schygulla. Fakher Eldin, who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, is the son of two Syrian immigrants from Golan Heights. He previously directed two short films, as well as the 2021 feature The Stranger. Yunan will be competing in the festival's main competition. Palestinian filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter's documentary Yalla Parkour is an exploration of a resilient parkour community that practices the daring sport in Gaza. The film first screened in New York in November last year, followed by a Middle East premiere at the Red Sea Film Festival in December. Speaking to The National, Zuaiter said: 'In January, we lost the Gaza parkour member Saeed Al Tattari, it was at that point when we realised we have to stop filming and show the world what Gaza looked like. We needed to show that there was life – that there were people who were trying to make life out of nothing.' Yalla Parkour will be screened as part of the Panorama Dokumente category. Five filmmakers collaborated to direct Khartoum, a documentary about five different people who managed to flee the Sudanese capital in the wake of war. The directors are Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed with creative director and writer Philip Cox. The film mixes real-life footage from the first day of the war, with people themselves acting out what they did, in front of a green screen, to illustrate the trials and tribulations of their experience. Khartoum will be screening at the Sundance Film Festival before going to Berlin, and will be part of the Panorama category. Egyptian director Mohamed Rashad's The Settlement will compete in the Perspectives category, which is screening 14 films by first-time directors. The film follows two brothers, aged 23 and 12, whose only compensation after their father's death is to be offered work in the factory where their father died, alongside his killer. The Settlement makes its world premiere at the Berlinale. This short film by Iranian filmmaker Hesam Eslami explores the uncomfortable experience of being constantly under surveillance by his government. The film attempts to flip the table or those surveying, creating a tense situation in society. Eslami has previously directed three films: 20th Circuit Suspects, The Marriage Project and A Band of Dreamers and a Judge. Citizen-Inmate will screen as part of the Berlinale Short Film Competition. Mahmoud Ibrahim's Akher Youm, or The Last Day, is a documentary about a pair of Egyptian brothers who, while moving their furniture from their childhood home (set for demolition), tune into news of Palestinian homes being destroyed and reflect on both situations. The film will make its European premiere at the Berlinale, and will screen as part of the Forum Expanded category. Iranian-American filmmaker Mehrnoush Alia's latest project follows a group of actresses auditioning for the role of Scheherazade in A Thousand and One Nights under the watchful eye of a well-known director. The women start to realise that the director is casting for more than just the lead role. Alia was born in Iran but moved to the US where she now directs short films, with 1001 Frames being a feature film remake of her 2015 short film Scheherazade. 1001 Frames will be making its world premiere in the Panorama category. Iraqi filmmaker Ali Yahya's short film Beneath Which Rivers Flow takes its name from a verse in the Quran. The film follows a young man named Ibrahim who lives in Southern Iraq's marshlands with his buffalo companion. The pair are fine until it becomes clear an ecological disaster is about to upend their lives. This is Yahya Ali's first film behind the camera, having previously acted in two short films. Beneath Which Rivers Flow makes its global premiere at the Berlinale and will screen as part of the Generation 14 plus category. Produced by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Karim El Shenawy's film tells the story of Daye, a 14-year-old Nubian albino child with a golden voice. Daye is enamoured by his idol, Egyptian singer Mohamed Mounir. Daye's family, seeing the boy's talent, decide to travel to Cairo to audition for The Voice. El Shenawy has been directing short and feature films since 2012, directing six episodes of the Kuwaiti Netflix series The Exchange. The Tale of Daye's Family is making its European debut and will be screening as part of the Generation 14 plus category.