SAFAR Film Festival 2018

Adapted from Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, this pitch-perfect film noir is one of the finest adaptations of the Nobel winner’s works.

Director Koutaiba Al-Janabi presents the European premiere of his documentary combining different forms of archival footage to tell the story of Iraqis forced from their homeland.

Narrative takes a backseat to character and visual immersion in this film about the obsessive relationship between a sister and brother. Followed by a Q&A with director Ahmed Fawzi Saleh.

Zeina Daccache’s documentary follows women inmates through a ten-month therapy and theatre project at Lebanon’s Baabda Prison.

Balancing ire with humour, this anthology film adapts the work of Tunisian literary giant Ali Douagi.

This film within a film addresses the scars left by the Lebanese civil war and the function of storytelling in anxious times. Followed by a Q&A with director Georges Hachem.

A collection of shorts from across the Arab World showing the hybrid modes of adapting literary texts to screen.

Based on a short story by Brazilian writer Jorge Amado, Oussama Fawzi’s sophomore film is a hallucinatory nocturnal journey into the depths of the human.

Set amid the Algerian War, Ahmed Rachedi’s film concerns the struggle for liberation and the inherent problems of freedom.