New Additions to the Collection
Beauty and the Dogs (Arabic)
"When Mariam, a young Tunisian woman, is raped by police officers after leaving a party, she is propelled into a harrowing night in which she must fight for her rights even though justice lies on the side of her tormentors. 'life? Adventure is adventure. His big trip on the water turns out to be full of surprises and unexpected encounters."
Bidūni-i tārīkh, bidūn-i imz̤āʼ (Farsi)
"Forensic pathologist Dr. Nariman's car accidentally injures a motorcyclist's eight-year-old son. He offers to take the child to a clinic, but the father refuses his help and his money. A few days later, in the hospital where he works, Dr. Nariman learns that the boy has died under suspicious circumstances. His existential dilemma: is he responsible for the death, or did the child die of another cause, as the autopsy suggests? It's a study in ethical nuance, filtered through class consciousness."
Ferahfeza (Turkish)
"Ali spends his time in shipyards, working with his father; they don't get along well. At every chance, he drifts towards thoughts of signs that will guide him to a happier life. One night, Ali climbs up a billboard scaffold, and sees a half-finished graffiti mural of a ship on the side of an abandoned building. Upon meeting its creator, Eda, he is certain she will accompany him to faraway lands."
."Inflame (Turkish)
"Hasret's dreams are haunted by a recurring nightmare from which she disengages every morning. However, what she experiences nightly is not a fictional recreation, but memories. As she returns from her job at a news channel to a flat left to her after her parents' death twenty years earlier, the questions planted by her dreams slowly begin to creep up; did her parents really die in a car crash?"
The Insult (Arabic)
"After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention."
ʼIštibāk = Clash (Arabic)
"Cairo, summer of 2013 - two years after the Egyptian revolution. In the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Morsi, a police truck full of detained demonstrators of divergent political and religious backgrounds roams through violent protests. Can the detainees overcome their differences to stand a chance of survival?”
Junction 48 (Arabic)
"Kareem leads an aimless life between odd jobs and hanging out with his buddies in a crime-ridden Arab ghetto of the mixed Israeli city of Lyd. A family tragedy brings him closer to his singer girlfriend, Manar, and motivates him to do something more with his life. When Kareem and his group finally get a chance to perform in a Tel Aviv hip-hop club, the star potential of the 'first Arab rapper' is quickly noticed. But the road to success is never easy."
Martyr (Arabic)
"For Hassane, a young man from an impoverished neighborhood, life has stopped making sense. All he has left is a close group of friends, brought together by a shared sense of marginalization and hopelessness. Hassane's strange sudden drowning at Beirut's rocky shore sparks a mob procession and strips apart the bond of youth and friendship, forcing his friends to grapple with loss and powerlessness, and with cold heavy truth of their friend's dead body."
The Nile Hilton Incident (Arabic)
"Cairo, 2011, just weeks before the revolution. Police Detective Noredin, working in the infamous Kasr el-Nil Police Station, is handed the case of a murdered singer. He soon realizes that the investigation concerns the very power elite, close to the president's inner circle."
The Salesman (Farsi)
"The story of a couple whose relationship begins to turn sour during their performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman."
Three Faces (Farsi)
"A smartphone video shot by a young woman announces that her parents have forbidden her from realizing her dream of acting and then, by all appearances, takes her own life. The recipient of the video, Behnaz Jafari, as herself, asks Panahi, as himself, to drive her to the woman's tiny home village near the Turkish border to investigate."
Wajma: An Afghan Love Story (Farsi)
"A young man in Kabul, Mustafa, charms a pretty student named Wajma. The pair begins a clandestine relationship - they're playful and passionate, but ever mindful to societal rules they are breaking."
Zizou and the Arab Spring (Arabic)
"With two years of university under his belt, but very little common sense, Zizou leaves his Saharan village and finds work in the city of Tunis, installing satellite dishes alongside a colorful cast of characters. The job takes him to every part of the city, introducing him to residents ranging from supporters of the regime and underground rebels to a ravishing beauty being held captive by the mafia. When Zizou decides to attempt a rescue of his beloved, he gets much more than he bargained for."
