26th Annual Arab Film Festival

The Nation’s Oldest and Largest Festival of Arab Films

The flagship event of the Arab Film and Media Institute, the Arab Film Festival is the longest running independent festival of its kind in North America. Launched in 1996, the festival's mission is to present the best of contemporary films that illuminate the richness of Arab culture through authentic narratives and images, providing insight into the beauty and complexity of the Arab world.

The festival also offers special programming to local audiences, and unprecedented access to the diversity and range of authentic Arab experiences. The festival has gained an international reputation for excellence and offers its audiences access to media that reflects the lives of under-represented and provocative themes and groups on a cultural and societal level.

Schedule:
Friday, November 11, 2022
7:00pm: Opening Night: The Blue Caftan
The 26th Arab Film Festival will open in San Francisco with THE BLUE CAFTAN, a beautiful film from award-winning director Maryam Touzani, who will join us in person.

Winner of the prestigious Fipresci Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival

Halim and Mina run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.

Join us after the film for a special talkback with director Maryam Touzani, moderated by filmmaker & AFF2022 jury chair Rita Baghdadi!

Ticket:
Opening Night Film $25 general, $20 senior/student/low-income
Opening Night VIP $ 75 access to film, VIP reception and after party

Location: Castro Theatre - San Francisco

9:30pm: Opening Night After Party!
Come to the After Party!

It is rare for us all to gather and enjoy nostalgic tunes from our childhood, as well as new ones. We are excited to have the AFF Opening Night After Party again at Slate Bar in SF (the Mission district), sponsored by Baklava, the Arab Relationship App!

Bring your comfy shoes and your most Arabesque outfit for some endless dancing, mingling, and catching up with old friends.

Tickets
$15 tickets online, or $20 at the door

Location: Slate Bar San Francisco

Saturday, November 12, 2022
2:00pm: Miguel's War
MIGUEL'S WAR is the story of a gay man who grew up oppressed and shamed during the Lebanese civil war. Raised by a conservative Catholic father and an authoritarian Syrian mother, teenage Miguel was inhibited by a deep inferiority complex and was incapable of asserting himself. In 1983 the deeply sensitive boy, desperate to prove he "exists" and can act like “a real man” joined the fighting as part of an armed faction. But his experience was a failure. Traumatized he immigrates to Madrid, Spain.

In post-Franco Madrid, Miguel seeks to liberate himself through debauchery. A string of destructive relationships lead him to a failed suicide. Trying to pull himself together, Miguel becomes a conference interpreter in Barcelona. Only then, thirty-seven years after leaving Lebanon, Miguel feels ready to face his trauma and the ghosts of his past, and hopes to regain his emotional balance and maybe even find love.

Using intertwining cinematic forms, melding documentary, animation, theater and archive and filmed on location in Lebanon and Spain, this feature film hopes to offer an experience of self-confrontation, awareness and catharsis.

4:40pm: A Second Life
Gadeha (12) happens one day to be the victim of a car accident. He undergoes surgery. Penniless, his mother, Borkana, is helped by Malika and Moez, a benevolent couple that offers to pay for the hospital fees and provides the destitute family with a roof. Gadeha meets Oussama, Malika and Moez’s child (11). A strong friendship is made between the two boys. But Gadeha finds out haphazardly the secret of his family's new standard of living. He is devastated.

6:45pm: Shorts: Queer Lens
This year's Queer Lens program focuses on the theme of Diaspora & Displacement. Featuring award-winning short films that highlight the experiences of Queer Arabs around the globe. The characters in these stories all find themselves at the intersection of their identities. Some must reconcile the reality of their sexuality with a family who loves but does not understand, others work towards a life lived authentically in a society that does not accept them and a few explore leaving a place that is not safe even though it means letting go of those they care about. In this collection, audiences will find stories that may be unique in their details but are deeply relatable at their core and despite the difficulties, celebrate honesty and love.

This program includes the following films:
Habib & the Thief (Sweden) dir. Naures Sager
The Window (Lebanon) dir. Sarah Kaskas
Faraway (Canada) dir. Aziz Zoromba
Dress Up (United States) dir. Karina Dandashi
Warsha (Lebanon) dir. Dania Bdeir

8:30pm: Memory Box
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.

Location: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland

Sunday, November 13, 2022
2:00pm: Fadia's Tree
While millions of migratory birds fly freely in the skies above, a Palestinian refugee, stranded in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges Sarah, the director, to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family’s existence – with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah meets with ornithologists whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds reveal the unresolved problems of the region.

Spanning fifteen years, this story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and fragmented people, adopts a birds’ eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.

4:00pm: The Desert Rocker
The Desert Rocker is an intimate, witty and profound portrait of the extraordinary Hasna El Becharia, a pioneer Gnawa artist. The first musician to break through the social barrier of this culture, she empowers and inspires women of all ages by reclaiming a musical tradition reserved for men for centuries. A singularly talented artist, she leads women to redefine their roles and challenge cultural norms, one musical performance at a time.

6:20pm: Beirut Hold'em
Beirut Hold’em depicts the life of Ziko, a 40-year old ex-con and petty gambler, and his three boyhood friends, in a seedy, lower-middle class district of Beirut. They’re fighting their way into a country on the edge of war and bankruptcy, where instability makes everyday life feel like Russian roulette, and sheer existence is yet another form of gambling.

8:30pm: The Alleys
In a claustrophobic East Amman neighborhood, where gossip and violence run rampant, Ali, a hustler who pretends to be a businessman, has a secret relationship with Lana. Their romance is kept hidden until one day Lana’s mother, Aseel, is blackmailed with a video of the young couple.

Hoping to avoid public embarrassment, Aseel discreetly convinces Abbas, a ruthless gangster, to put a stop to it… but things do not go so smoothly. Their lives start to intertwine and collide not just with each other, but with the other residents living amongst the same Alleys.

Location: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland

7:00pm: BAMPFA Presents: Beirut the Encounter
Beirut the Encounter, the second fiction feature by Borhane Alaouié, who died last September (1941–2021), marks an interesting transition from the stark realism of his debut, Kafr Kassem (1975), to something more elliptical, in the style of Alain Resnais. In this film, set during the Lebanese Civil War, two young people separated by the fighting—one a Christian, the other a Muslim—make tape recordings for each other discussing, in their view, why they believe fighting continues in Beirut. Writing on this film, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze noted, “Speech is truly seen forcing a difficult path through the ruins . . . [The director] has filmed speech as something visible, as a material in movement.” As in all Alaouié’s films, the slow tracking movements of the camera bring its most exciting moments.

Location: BAMPFA, Berkeley

Monday, November 14, 2022
5:00pm: Bay Area Filmmaker Mixer
This year we are hosting a happy-hour get together for Bay Area filmmakers and a virtual workshop later in the week, along with a number of parties and local screenings; so you can build communities while enjoying the best of Arab Cinema.

Psst: at 6:30 pm don’t forget to catch the Local Talent Shorts Program that’ll be just around the corner at The New Parkway, featuring work by filmmakers from Los Angeles and the San Francisco the Bay Area

Location: Telegraph Beer Garden, Oakland

6:30pm: Shorts: Local Talent
This year, AFMI is proud to showcase a collection of work by talented Arab directors, writers, producers and actors based in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

This program includes the following films:
Kingdom of Strangers (Egypt, United States) dir. Randa Ali
Road to El Kef (Tunisia) dir. Ihsen Kammoun
In the Long Run (Yemen) dir. Yousef Assabahi
The Laughing Woo Woo (United States) dir. Amir Youssef
Share the Pie (United States) dir. Yvan Iturriaga

8:30pm: Daughters Of Abdul-Rahman
In a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Amman, single and middle-aged Zainab lives a dreary existence as a local seamstress and her father’s keeper. After her father accidentally sees her in a wedding dress she is altering for her cousin – Zainab wakes up and finds her father missing – a man who gave reason for her existence.

Location: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland

Tuesday, November 15, 2022
6:30pm: Shorts: Past & Present
PAST & PRESENT is this year's documentary shorts program. It is comprised of 5 unique films exploring the themes of family and heritage in both the Arab world and the diaspora.

This program includes the following films:
5:1 (Canada) dir. Sara Ben-Saud
The Perfect Picture (Lebanon) dir. Hala El Kouch
And then they burn the sea (Qatar) dir. Majid Al-Remaihi
Echolocation (United States) dir. Nadia Shihab
Coming Home (United States) dir. Naim Naif & Margot Bowman

8:10pm: Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist
When her father becomes suddenly paralyzed, the filmmaker spends four years in between hospitals finding shelter behind her camera away from a family tragedy. Rehabilitation centers, cemeteries, love making, VR experiments, fervent prayers and voice notes are the record of a filmmaker’s journey trying to amend the impossible: finding absolution for a broken family by making her father walk again.

Location: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland

Wednesday, November 16, 2022
5:00pm: Shorts: Childhood Imagination
Even in difficult, dangerous or high pressure circumstances, these films remind us that children will always be children. They will still find a way to play, create and explore the world.

This program includes the following films:
Tala'vision (Jordan) dir. Murad Abu Eisheh
In the Long Run (Yemen) dir. Yousef Assabahi
Hibernate (Syria) dir. Houssam Hassan Hamo
Between the Barricades (Palestine) dir. Jude Elziq

6:30pm: Netflix Presents: The Swimmers
Based on a true story, THE SWIMMERS follows the journey from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use. Starring Nathalie Issa, Manal Issa, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ahmed Malek, James Krishna Floyd, Nahel Tzegai, Kinda Alloush and Ali Suliman. Directed by Sally El Hosaini, with a screenplay written by El Hosaini and multi-award-winning screenwriter and playwright Jack Thorne. Produced by Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner alongside Ali Jaafar and Tim Cole with Stephen Daldry executive producing.

Location: The New Parkway Theater, Oakland

Thursday, November 17, 2022
7:00pm: BAMPFA Presents: Leila and the Wolves
Heiny Srour’s striking, inventive film features Nabila Zeitouni as Leila, a young Lebanese woman in London who time-travels through twentieth-century Lebanon and Palestine. It was Srour’s second film, after the landmark documentary The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived, and her only feature-length fiction film. Leila and the Wolves brings together elements of documentary and evocations of Arabian mythology. Srour conducted often-dangerous location shooting for several years, combining wondrous compositions with images from archival film to reconstruct conventional historical narratives. Focusing on women’s neglected political and social contributions, Leila and the Wolves brings a sharp feminist perspective to the region’s conflicted colonial past.

Location: BAMPFA, Berkeley

Friday, November 18, 2022
5:00pm: Shorts: Animated Explorations
Spanning a number of different styles and mediums, the short films in this year’s Animation Showcase each bring beauty to difficult stories. These talented filmmakers' use of creative and often fantastical storytelling techniques create engaging, if at times emotional, explorations of heavy themes such as war, displacement and loss.

This program includes the following films:
The Ocean Duck (United States) dir. Huda Razzak
Yuluu (United Kingdom) dir. Fatima Kried
Have a Nice Dog! (Germany) dir. Jalal Maghout
Night (Palestine) dir. Ahmad Saleh
Rest in Piece (France) dir. Antoine Antabi
Shadow of the Butterflies (Morocco) dir. Sofia El Khyari

6:25pm: The Sea Ahead
A young woman makes her way back home to her parents’ house in the middle of the night leaving a bad experience behind. Haunting pressures to fit back into the family dynamics as well as revealing details of her life abroad weigh heavy on her. Feeling cornered, her anxieties resurface, leading her to find solace in another part of her Beirut life that she had forsaken. A life that is for her as familiar and foreign now as it ever was.

8:50pm: Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day?
“Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day?” is a contemporary queer musical taking Arab folktales as its formal reference, and Egyptian pop music as its primary sonic material. It is based on the filmmaker's personal love diary and told in the form of a “One Thousand andOne Nights” tale, where stories playfully unfold through conversations between Scheherazade, a narrator who never comes into view, and ghosts of former lovers.

Location: The Roxie Theater, San Francisco

10:00pm: ASHEq - 8 Year Anniversary Party
Join and support the one-of-a-kind ASHEq the Middle East North African queer dance party!
With amazing music by DJ Nemo
Great belly dance performance from ASHEq collective.
Three fabulous drag queen shows
Sexy gogo dancers
Cool vibes and much more!!
Get to know the culture, get to know the people!!
Please bring a valid ID. Oasis is 21+ for all events.

Doors open at 10pm. Show will start around 11:30pm.

Location: Oasis, San Francisco

Saturday, November 19, 2022
1:00pm: Shorts: Ruya (Visions)
Our Visions shorts program returns to once again showcase outstanding, world-class short films by some of the most talented filmmakers of the day. This year's program features four beautiful shorts about different types of relationships: friendly, familial and romantic. Each vignette brings something unique to the table whether it is a story not often told or a style not often seen.

This program includes the following films:
A Day Off (Lebanon) dir. Leonardo Bassil
Nour Shams (Saudi Arabia) dir. Faiza Ambah
A'lam (Flag) (Palestine) dir. Saleh Saadi
She Said No (Egypt) dir. Sondos Shabayek

2:45pm: Salma's Home
SALMA’S HOME film is set in Jordan and revolves around three women with distinct personalities. SALMA (Juliet Awad) is a talented baker living alone in a large old house overlooking downtown Amman running a nonprofitable home-based bakery, her daughter FARAH (Sameera Asir) is a young working mother with marital problems with husband Malek (Firas Taybeh) . Their lives are disrupted by the death of Salma’s ex-husband. The funeral takes place at his current wife’s house, LAMIA (Rania Kurdi), an aspiring socialite who is obsessed with building her brand online. After the funeral, Uncle Emad (Waleed Jizawi) brings shocking facts to light leading to territorial clashes and finally forcing the three women to accept some harsh realities and take control of their lives.

4:50pm: Encore Screening: The Blue Caftan
Halim and Mina run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.

7:20pm: Shorts: Dark Shadows
DARK SHADOWS is an exploration of works of horror from the Arab world. The short films featured in this program utilize absurdity, fantasy and a bit of gore to explore the darker parts of life, including war, rape, death and family secrets.

This program includes the following films:
It Gets Darker (Lebanon) dir. Daniel Habib & Firas Abou Fakher
Circlet (Iraq) dir. Saif Sabah Malih
Then Came Dark (Lebanon) dir. Marie-Rose Osta
The Foreign Land (Algeria) dir. Naël Zaiti--Ruelle

9:15pm: Ashkal
Set amongst derelict, half-finished apartment complexes of a former regime, the discovery of a mysterious burnt body by two police officers reveals a puzzling repetition of events. As the investigation progresses, a network of violence and corruption is uncovered throughout the city.

Location: The Roxie Theater, San Francisco

Sunday, November 20, 2022
2:00pm: Shorts: Dahik (Laughter)
Don't let the toilet humor fool you, these short films offer humorous plays on very real, and often serious, situations.

The program includes the following films:
Out of Order (United States) dir. Nicolas Heller
Lovesick in the West Bank (Palestine) dir. Said Zagha
The Grand Secret of Barseem (Saudi Arabia) dir. Sultan Rabea
The Laughing Woo Woo (United States) dir. Amir Youssef

3:30pm: Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege
The district of Yarmouk (Damascus, Syria) sheltered the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in the world from 1957 to 2018. When the Syrian revolution broke out, the regime of Bashar Al-Assad saw Yarmouk as a refuge of rebels and resistance and set up a siege from 2013 on. Gradually deprived of food, medicine and electricity, Yarmouk was cut off from the rest of the world. Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in Yarmouk and lived there until his expulsion by Daesh in 2015. Between 2011 and 2015, he and his friends documented the daily life of the besieged inhabitants, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger with rallying, study, music, love and joy. Hundreds of lives were irredeemably transformed by war and siege - from Abdallah’s mother, who turned into a nurse taking care of the elderly at the camp, to the fiercest activists whose passion for Palestine got gradually undermined by hunger...

5:30pm: Encore Screening: Memory Box
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.

7:45pm: Closing Night: The Stranger (Al Garib)
In a small village in the occupied Golan Heights, the life of a desperate unlicensed doctor who is going through an existential crisis takes another unlucky turn when he encounters a man wounded in the war in Syria. Overturning all community expectations in times of war and national crisis, he ventures forth to meet his newfound destiny.

Location: The Roxie Theater, San Francisco

Date: November 11 - 20, 2022

Location:
Castro Theatre - 429 Castro Street San Francisco, CA 94114
Slate Bar - 2925 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94103
Roxie Theater - 3117 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94103
The New Parkway Theater - 474  24th Street Oakland, CA 94612
Oasis SF - 298 11th St San Francisco, CA 94109
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive - 2155 Center Street Berkeley, CA 94720
Telegraph - 2318 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA 94612

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