FEATURE

Aida, member of a Tunisian contemporary dance troupe touring Morocco, provokes during a representation in a small Middle Atlas town, her life and stage partner Hedi, who injures her onstage triggering a series of events through a long night across a forest, on the way to the next village’s doctor.

FIVE STORIES OF LONGING AND IDENTITY

In this screening programme, we bring together filmmakers who explore the feeling of identity in the transience created by migration and exile that leaves us balancing the home we lost and the home we created.

QUEER STORIES FROM THE SWANA REGION

Unspoken for so long, queerness has always been an identity as part of the culture in the wider SWANA Region. Whether it’s gender or sexuality, fluidity has always been accepted, until colonialism created hard binaries. In this screening, queer storytellers reclaim these suppressed identities.

FEATURE

ES escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him. The promise of a new life turns into a comedy of errors: however far he travels, from Paris to New York, something always reminds him of home. From award-winning director Elia Suleiman, a comic saga exploring identity, nationality and belonging, in which Suleiman asks the fundamental question: where is the place we can truly call home?

FEATURE PLUS SHORT

The ongoing civil war and genocide in Sudan is tragically underrepresented in the mainstream. These two films give us very different pictures from unique perspectives of an unfolding catastrophe in Sudan.

TWO STORIES OF LEBANESE IDENTITY AND DISPLACEMENT

Lebanon has always balanced its western and eastern cultures with its fragile ethnic and religious make up, and thus Lebanese identity has always been contentious. The first film discusses young Lebanese identity after the 2020 Beirut explosion and the subsequent civil unrest, and in the second film we see the identity of displaced Palestinians who have found safety in Lebanon after the 1948 Nakba.

FEATURE PLUS SHORT

Although it is the birthplace of civilisation, Iraq’s modern history is full of destruction and violence, yet hope seems to prevail. Iraqi stories mirror this narrative. This screening will bring together two contrasting Iraqi filmmakers each focusing on manifestations of state sponsored violence but from very different perspectives.

FEATURE

As in all industrialized European countries, social democrats and trade unions led the workers’ movement. And – although not simultaneously – these institutions had lost their impact all over western Europe by the 1980s. Racist policies succeeded in driving a wedge between immigrant and native workers. This factor, together with the de-industrialization at the end of the 1970s, led to the decline of the classical workers' movement in Switzerland as well. Today nobody talks about the ‘working class’ anymore. The term ‘worker’ has become synonymous with ‘foreigner’. Filmmaker Samir uses private family photos, animations, music clips and unseen archive material, to tell the story of migration from Switzerlands southern neighbours in an entertaining way, from the post-war period to the present day.

THREE STORIES FROM PALESTINE

As far as modern tragedies go, sadly Palestine stands out as one of the biggest injustices of our time. Yet the resilience of its people is unmatched. These three films tell stories of struggle, identity and hope through the eyes of Nakba survivors, exiled Palestinians and genocide survivors.

THREE STORIES OF MIGRATION AND THE DESIRE FOR REFUGE

Throughout history, migration has been the most natural human movement, yet colonialism has created an unfair divide between those who have and those who have not. These films tell stories of people risking their lives for a better future in Europe.

STORIES EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS AND PRIVATE LIVES

Whether it’s family relationships, marriage, or the trivial every day, human behaviour is fascinating, yet there’s always a common thread. These contrasting stories offer an intimate glimpse behind the curtains, letting us in to the lives of others.

TWO DOCUMENTARY PORTRAITS

In this a deeply personal project, Director Yamam Nabeel shares the Iraq he missed out on, as the young son of exiled Iraqi poet Nabeel Yasin, a parallel Iraq created by these artists he grew up with in Europe.