SAFAR Film Festival 2018

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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