From Afar
Movies from the Middle East for an Irish-American in Brooklyn looking to expand their understanding of lives different from our own
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22 titles
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorAli RafieStarsReza KianianRoya NonahaliGolshifteh FarahaniAfter 22 years, Aziz decides to return to his hometown, to sell some family possessions, including the house where he was born. But for his astonishment, the place is now a small restaurant, run by four women, one of them a girl whom he once dated. Attieh, the girl, tries to convince him not to sell the place by, instead of telling him a story a day as Sheherazade, cooking him a delicious dish every day.
- DirectorKambuzia PartoviStarsFereshteh Sadre OrafaiyParviz ParastuiNikos Papadopoulos"Cafe Transit" depicts an independent-minded widow who bucks tradition to run her dead husband's truck stop café.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsShahab HosseiniTaraneh AlidoostiMina SadatiWhile Ranaa and Emad, a married couple, are participating in a production of "Death of a Salesman," she is assaulted in their new home, which leaves him determined to find the perpetrator over his wife's traumatized objections.
- DirectorAnnemarie JacirStarsMohammad BakriSaleh BakriTarik KoptyA father and his estranged son must come together to hand deliver his daughter's wedding invitations to each guest as per local Palestinian custom, in this rousing family drama from Annemarie Jacir (When I Saw You).
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsLubna AzabalMélissa Désormeaux-PoulinMaxim GaudetteTwins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.
- DirectorElite ZexerStarsLamis AmmarRuba BlalHitham OmariWhen their entire lives shatter, two Bedouin women struggle to change the unchangeable rules, each in her own individual way.
- CreatorTawfik Abu WaelJoseph CedarHagai LeviStarsShlomi ElkabetzJohnny ArbidAdam GabayBased on the true events which led to the outbreak of war in Gaza 2014.
- DirectorWaad Al-KateabEdward WattsStarsWaad Al-KateabSama Al-KhateabHamza Al-KhateabFOR SAMA is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiAmir Farrokh HashemianBahare SeddiqiAfter a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein AbediniZahra BahramiMohammad Amir NajiIn a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiMaryam AkbariKamran DehghanWhen an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsAdel KaramKamel El BashaCamille SalamehAfter an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
- DirectorRanda Chahal SabagStarsFlavia BecharaMaher BsaibesRanda AsmarA young 15 year old girl, Lamia, lives in a southern Lebanese village on the border with Israel. She is given in marriage to her cousin on the other side of the border. As Lamia crosses the barbed wire she also passes from childhood into adulthood, as brutal as our countries and the events that are to follow.
- DirectorNadine LabakiStarsClaude Baz MoussawbaaNadine LabakiYvonne MaaloufA group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.
- DirectorPhilippe AractingiStarsNada Abou FarhatGeorges KhabbazRawia ElchabIn the wake of Israel's 2006 bombardment of Lebanon, a determined woman finds her way into the country convincing a taxi cab driver to take a risky journey around the scarred region in search of her sister and her son.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsHiam AbbassRona Lipaz-MichaelAli SulimanThe story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
- DirectorIcíar BollaínStarsLaia MarullLuis TosarCandela PeñaOne winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...
- DirectorRonit ElkabetzShlomi ElkabetzStarsRonit ElkabetzSimon AbkarianGilbert MelkiThe story takes place in Haifa, Israel, in 1979, during three days before the Shabbat. A young woman trying to raise three children, work from home, and observe the strict Moroccan traditions of her family finds herself at constant odds with her husband and her brothers, who want her to stay married and leave behind the notions of being loved and free.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsBérénice BejoTahar RahimAli MosaffaAn Iranian man deserts his French wife and her two children to return to his homeland. Meanwhile, his wife starts up a new relationship, a reality her husband confronts upon his wife's request for a divorce.
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsRami DoueiriNaamar SahliMohamad ChamasIn April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.