Contemporary Arab Cinema

Three women—with the police on their tail—embark on a drawn-out escape that takes them across the rugged red terrain and flower-filled valleys of the Moroccan Atlas mountains.

A short distance between father and son makes for a long and harrowing journey in this political family drama by writer and director Ameen Neyfeh.

A young single mother, rejected by her family in the name of honor, tries to survive but becomes caught in a spiral of violence.

Set in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a young man sets out to fulfill his childhood dream of being a professional wrestler, meeting many eccentric characters along the way in this light-hearted comedy.

Maha Haj’s darkly funny and resonant film pairs a depressed and stubborn wannabe writer with a small-time crook as they develop an unlikely friendship.

A young student becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite after the Grand Imam of al-Azhar dies.

In a dilapidated villa in Cairo, an aged caretaker resides, cut off from the evolving world. His solitude shatters when a gang leader unexpectedly enters his life.

Set in and around the massive Baghdad garbage dumps, a young boy crosses into dangerous territory after finding an American sex doll while foraging for items of value.

The arrival of a young apprentice disrupts the marriage of a closeted Moroccan master tailor in one of Morocco’s oldest quarters.

Set in a gritty, cramped neighborhood in East Amman, Jordan, writer and director Bassel Ghandour pieces together a violent mosaic of extortion, forbidden love, and ungodly alliances in his directorial debut.

A migrant worker and a Syrian refugee seize the opportunity to leave Beirut, where they have both experienced their fair share of hardship, and discover the difference between having nothing and having nothing to lose.

When a deadly virus escapes from a lab in Israel, a British-Israeli couple seeks refuge in the Gaza Strip, which has hilariously and ironically become one of the safest places in the country.