CURRENT PROJECTS

︎︎︎A Fidai Film

78min, 2024

In the summer of 1982, the Israeli army invaded Beirut. During this time, it raided the Palestinian Research Center and looted its entire archive. The archive contained historical documents of Palestine, including a collection of still and moving images. Taking this as a premise, 'A Fidai Film' aims to create a counter-narrative to this loss, presenting a form of cinematic sabotage that seeks to reclaim and restore the looted memories of Palestinian history. It’s a poignant exploration of identity, memory, and resistance, told through a unique blend of documentary and experimental filmmaking techniques.

Year:                   2024
Runtime:           78’
Countries:        Palestine; Germany; Qatar, Brasil; France
Language:        Arabic, English, Hebrew
Techs:                Color; B&W

Funders:
Medienboard Experimentalfilm
Doha Film Institute
Initial Grant Akademie der Künste Berlin
A. M. Qattan Foundation
35^a Bienal de São Paulo

Festivals:
Visions du Réel
IndieLisboa
Pesaro Film Festival
FID Marseille
Kino Otok
Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
Festival Obskura
Golden Apricot Yerevan IFF
DokuFest
Sarajevo Film Festival
États généraux du film documentaire
Villa Medici Film Festival
Camden International Film Festival
Twin Cities Arab Film Festival
FICValdivia
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival
SEMINCI - Valladolid International Film Week
Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux MIRAGE Film Festival
Pravo Ljudski Film Festival
Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife
Refocus Film Festival
Transmutación Cine Contemporaneo
Ji.hlava IDFF
Verzió Film Festival
Sharjah Film Festival
Écrans du réel
Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá - MIDBO
Festival Internacional de Cine de Cali
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
London Palestine Film Festival
Festival du film franco-arabe
Palestine Filmer C’est Exister
FIDOCS
RIDM - Montreal International Documentary Festival Festivalforumdoc.bh - Festival do Filme Documentário e Etnográfico de Belo Horizonte
Marrakech International Film Festival
Mar del Plata International Film Festival
Ojo al cine
Human Rights Film Festival Zagreb
Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival

Awards:



Jury Prize in the Burning Lights Competition
Visions du Réel

GNCR/CINÉ+ Distribution Support Prize / Renaud Victor Prize
FID Marseille

Premio del Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani (SNCCI) / Menzione d’onore Giuria Giovani
Pesaro Film Festival

International Feature Award
DokuFest

︎︎︎Beirut 1931

fiction
2021 – Development
2022 – Production   

K. arrives in his native Jaffa after the disappearance of M. Like a lurking shadow, M. would only occasionally visit his family home— mostly over weekends—and would sometimes disappear for long periods of time. The visits he pays to hospitals and ministries in search for him prove futile, albeit for the fact that they drive him into a sort of labyrinth inside the Tel Aviv of today. But this is just one illustration of the extent to which the lines between the real and the fictitious are totally blurred. When K. finds a trace of M. in the background of an Israeli fiction film as he accidentally roams the street behind the shooting locale, the haziness between fiction and reality is accentuated further.

Funders:
Filmförderung der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM)
Doha film institute
Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC)

  PREVIOUS FILMS

︎︎︎UNDR
15min, 2024

Helicopter footage examines the desert, surveying ancient natural formations and human interventions. Dynamite changes the face of the land. Farmers work their fields. Children play hide-and-seek. Employing archival footage, UNDR constructs an eerie narrative of calculated incursion. We cannot help but recall that Palestine remains a land subjected to aerial surveillance that seeks to appropriate the landscape. (Nicholas Davies)

Year:                   2024
Runtime:           15’
Countries:        Palestine; Germany
Language:        Arabic
Techs:                Color; B&W

Festival:

IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival
Unarchive Film Festival
Prismatic Ground
(EXiS) Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul
Karlovy Vary IFF
Dokufest
EDOC Encuentros del Otro Cine Film Festival in Ecuador
Palestine Cinema Days
Peripheries of Film & Video Fest Festival
BIEFF Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival
Twin Cities Arab Film Festival
BFI London Film Festival 
Lima Alterna Festival Internacional de Cine
Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival
Transmutación Cine Contemporaneo
Uppsala Short Film Festival
ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao
Kassel Dokfest
FIDOCS - Santiago International Documentary Festival
Ajyal Film Fest - Doha Film Institute

Awards:
Best EXiS Award
(EXiS) Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul

Special Mention
BIEFF Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival

︎︎︎Paradiso, XXXI, 108
18min, 2022 – TRAILER

Nothing can be heard anymore; the roar of our plane absorbs every other sound. We are heading straight to the world’s biggest display of soundproof fireworks, and soon we will drop our bombs.

Year:                   2022
Runtime:           18’
Countries:        Palestine; Germany
Language:        Arabic
Techs:                Color

Festival:

Locarno Film Festival

Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival
IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival
Camden International Film Festival
Black Canvas – Festival De Cine Contemporaneo, Mexico City
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival
FilmMakerFest Milan
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival
IFFA Independent Film Festival of Athens
Filmfest Dresden
Curtas Vila do Conde

Prizes:

Preis der deutschen Filmkritik, Best Experimental Film.

︎︎︎An Unusual Summer
80min, 2020 – TRAILER

︎︎︎It's a Long Way from Amphioxus
16min, 2019 – TRAILER

︎︎︎Recollection
70min, 2015 – TRAILER

︎︎︎Port of Memory
63min, 2010 – TRAILER

︎︎︎Balconies
8min, 2007 – TRAILER

︎︎︎The Roof
61min, 2006 – TRAILER

︎︎︎Visit Iraq
26min, 2003 – TRAILER