Contemporary Arab Cinema

This series is a labor of love—born from a simple, urgent belief that Arab filmmakers must be the ones telling our own stories. In a moment when so much feels misread or misunderstood, these films insist on being heard in their own voice. They don’t try to explain the region as much as invite you to feel its contradictions and its quiet resilience. This year’s selection—marking the series’ 14th year and 7th at BAM—travels from Morocco to Lebanon, Egypt to Saudi Arabia, Palestine to Iraq, moving between the intimate and the expansive, the fragile and the defiant. Together, they offer something rare: a space where we can see ourselves, and be seen, on our own terms.
—Series programmer Lina Matta

Co-presented with the Jacob Burns Film Center