Favorite Middle Eastern movies
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- DirectorHelmy RaflaStarsTahiyyah KaryukaIsmail YassinMahmoud Al MelejiWhen a penniless fertilizer inspector visits a village, its mayor mistakes him for an Inspector General sent to investigate charges of corruption.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsAhmad MazharSalah ZulfikarNadia LutfiAfter Saladin's victory over the King of Jerusalem, a peace treaty is signed between them, but the commander of the Crusader army, Renaud de Chatillon, slaughters a group of pilgrims going to Mecca. Saladin then decides to take revenge.
- DirectorMetin ErksanStarsErol TasHülya KoçyigitUlvi DoganA farmer has a violent dispute with his fellow villagers by claiming ownership of the water that comes out of his land. He is as sexually frustrated as greedy.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsEzzatolah EntezamiMahin ShahabiAli NasirianAn old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
- DirectorChadi Abdel SalamStarsAhmed MareiAhmad HegaziNadia LutfiAn Upper-Egyptian clan robs a cache of mummies and sells the artifacts on the illicit antiquities black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members goes to the police, helping the Antiquities Service find the cache.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsFahimeh RastkarParviz KimiaviAgha Seyed ali Mirza SajadiA director of a television series on the history of cinema, who has been grappling with the screenplay of his first feature film, receives an assignment to oversee the installation of a television relay station in a remote region of Zahedan province, near the Afghanistan border. He has already hired Turkoman tribespeople for his film and selected his filming location. Meanwhile his wife, who is working on her Ph.D. dissertation about the Mongol invasion of Iran, attempts to dissuade him from accepting the assignment. One night, while working on his history of the cinema series, the director fantasizes a diagetic world that consists of clever juxtapositions of his different worlds: the history of cinema, the history of the mongol invasion, his own film idea and his imminent assignment to the desert.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMasud ZandbeglehHassan DarabiMostafa TariA grade-school-age boy, neglected by his parents, lies, cheats, and steals to accumulate enough money to afford a bus ride to a large city and a ticket to see his favorite soccer team play.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMasoud GudarziMehdi JavadiShahla DarvishiSet on the sun-drenched southern coast of Iran, "Harmonica" begins as a young boy receives a musical present from abroad. Fascinated and envious, his friends make him the leader of the pack, as they compete for the privilege of holding the harmonica or even blowing a few notes. No one is more obsessed than Amiroo, gentle and heavy-set, who seems willing to do anything to get close to the harmonica and its owner.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsErika MaazFarokh GhafariYadolla ShirandamiIn a remote village in the "land of roses and nightingales" one day surfaces a stranger: William Knox D'Arcy. To enact his plan for exploiting the wealth and the natural resources of this land, he sends after his cronies who descend upon the village in a big balloon. Among them is Cindrella a lady of electrifying beauty who is enlisted to keep the illiterate and lecherous villagers under her charm and make them follow D'Arcy's plans...
- DirectorKhosrow SinaiStarsMehdi HashemiSoraya GhasemiGholamreza TabatabaiAmidst the turmoil of Tehran in 1978, engineer Mahmud only wants to provide security for his family. He is determined to ignore the fighting taking place on the streets outside and shelter the ones he loves from the violence. But when his wife takes in a young revolutionary escaping from the police, providing refuge for the man forces his family headlong into the world he wants to protect them from. Mahmud can no longer ignore the revolution, but can he find a way to keep his wife and children safe?
- DirectorAli HatamiStarsEzzatolah EntezamiRichard HarrisonRussel CaseA loyal and simple-minded statesman is appointed as the first Iranian ambassador in the U.S. but soon starts to lose his mind from homesickness and inaction.
- DirectorSerif GörenYilmaz GüneyStarsTarik AkanSerif SezerHalil ErgünWhen five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMadjid NiroumandAbbas NazeriMusa TorkizadehAfter enrolling in a school, an impoverished boy finds conflict with his classmates and decides to compete to earn their respect.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabek Ahmed PoorAhmed Ahmed PoorKhodabakhsh DefaeiEight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
- DirectorKianoush AyariStarsKazem AfrandniaManijeh AghaiNasser AghayiA scriptwriter who can't convince the company to produce his movie, decides to operate the story in real life.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSusan TaslimiParviz PoorhosseiniAdnan AfravianAn Iranian boy is lost after fleeing home for his life; his family has been killed during the Iran-Iraq war. He's saved and trained by a middle-aged woman.
- DirectorMasud KimiaiStarsFaramarz SadighiGolchehre SajadiehAhmad NajafiReza, the veteran worker of a print house whose sight is adversely affected because of his job, loses his mother. Finding the gloom reigning over the home beyond bearing, he departs to overcome his sorrows. He ends up at a hostel where he shares his room with a southern guy called Ahmad who has a group of orphan war-stricken children under his wing. After the initial inkling gives way to the friendship, Reza discovers that Ahmad's patron plies his trade in black-market. At the same time, Reza's sister is constantly beaten and humiliated by her husband for being infertile...
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsKhosro ShakibaiEzzatolah EntezamiHossein SarsharHamoon's wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph. D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure out what he did wrong.
- DirectorRakhshan BanietemadStarsFarimah FarjamiAbolfazl PoorarabAtefeh RazaviAdel is a young criminal who frequently teams up with his middle-aged wife Afagh in order to carry out the most audacious schemes. But when Adel falls in love with Narges, he realises he is quite prepared to start a new life on the right side of the law. Posing as his mother, Afagh assures the bride's family that Adel is reliable, but his criminal record closes most doors in his attempts to secure a legitimate career path. Trapped in a love triangle and in the limbo of a double life, can Adel ever achieve the better future for which he is striving ?
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsNiki KarimiYassamin MaleknasrKhosro ShakibaiSara is the perfect young housewife, eager to serve. When husband Hessam requires an expensive emergency operation abroad, it is she who get the funds. For the next three years, it is Sara, labouring secretly to pay the shady loan and save Hessam's manly pride. Until the truth is revealed and with it, the reality of her marriage.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsNiki KarimiKhosro ShakibaiAli MosaffaHaunted by a book found in her dead brother's room, Pari wanders around to find answers for a meaningful life.
- DirectorYavuz TurgulStarsSener SenUgur YücelSermin HürmeriçBaran the Bandit, released from prison after 35 years, searches for vengeance and his lover.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsMina Mohammad KhaniKazem MojdehiNaser OmuniWhen a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself.
- 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.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsNour El-SherifLayla OlwiMahmoud HemidaThe story is set in the 12th century in Arab-ruled Spanish province Andalusia, where famed philosopher Averroes is appointed grand judge by the caliph and his liberal court judgments are not liked by everyone. The caliph's political rivals, centered around the leader of a fanatical Islamic sect, force the caliph to send Averroes into exile, but his ideas keep on living thanks to his students.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHomayoun ErshadiAbdolhosein BagheriAfshin Khorshid BakhtiariAn Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsHomayoun ErshadiGolshifteh FarahaniMohammad Reza Shahbani NouriEsteemed writer Mahmoud suffers from writers block. While trying to work at the family estate, concerns about an unproductive pear tree trigger in him memories of his childhood love for beautiful tomboy "M".
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsMassoumeh NaderiZahra NaderiGhorban Ali NaderiAfter twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
- 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.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsMaryiam Palvin AlmaniNargess MamizadehMojgan FaramarziVarious women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsSaid MohamadiBehnaz JafariBahman GhobadiItinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsAyoub AhmadiRojin YounessiAmaneh Ekhtiar-diniYoung Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
- DirectorBabak PayamiStarsNassim AbdiCyrus AbidiYoussef HabashiA female election agent and a gun-toting soldier try to collect votes among the local islanders with mixed success.
- DirectorReza MirkarimiStarsHossein ParastarHamed RajabaliMehran RajabiHassan is a student of Religious /Islamic school and is about to be dressed as a missioner .In such a time when his other mates are excited and are getting ready to be formally dressed and to become a spiritual missioner Hassan's doubts and incoherences starts and he begins to have a struggle with himself. Therefore he postpones his ceremony, yet for the sake of his father and to respect him he buys the dress. Meanwhile a young boy steals his formal clothes. Hassan goes after the boy and through this path he gets to know about the poverty of the people and the poor neighborhood where the young boy lives. He communicates with this community and gets familiar with their life style. This event gives him a motivation to become a spiritual missioner because he realizes that in this way he can serve these people. At the end, the young boy ends up in a rehabilitation center for children and is going to start a new life.
- DirectorHiner SaleemStarsRomen AvinianLala SarkissianIvan FranekIn a remote, isolated Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia, Hamo, a widower with a pitiful pension and three worthless sons, travels daily to his wife's grave. There he meets the lovely Nina, who is communing with her late husband. The two are penniless--she works in a local bar that is about to close down, while he has been forced to start selling his meager possessions. All seems hopelessly bleak, yet when Hamo begins to court Nina, their unexpected love revitalizes them.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorKamal TabriziStarsParviz ParastuiBahram EbrahimiReza SaeediA recently jailed petty thief disguises as a Mullah and succeeds in escaping; but has to stay in the Mullah' role longer than he expected to.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsGol-GhotaiZahedAgheleh RezaieThe story of survival of 2 children in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Their mother has been imprisoned for "adultery" and their father is in Guantanamo Bay.
- DirectorBassam Al-ThawadiStarsFatima AbdulrahimAli Al-GurairHamad Al-MeerThe plot revolves around Fatima, who is troubled by a vision of a mysterious person since her childhood. After 22 years of psychological problems, she wants to confront the vision. The film follows her search for answers where she discovers a connection between the A'ali burial mounds and the haunting vision. It is among the ominous burial mounds that the plot unfolds, and by chance brings about a meeting of Fatima and her ex-husband with the other main characters of the film. They are rebellious teenagers Khalid and Amin, who are involved in drugs, and Khalid's older brother Ahmed, who is trying to stop them throwing their lives away. This is not just a thriller, but a story of a group of individuals finding themselves in a dark situation with a mysterious presence that is trying to make them confront their problems.
- DirectorSaman MoghadamStarsFarhad AeeshReza AhadiPegah AhangaraniAn invitation for a famous Iranian bandmaster, Maxx, living in a foreign country, is accidentally sent to a young cabaret singer with the same name.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
- DirectorKhalid Abdulrahim Al-ZadjaliStarsSaleh Za'alZoha QaderSaud Al-DarmakiThe film takes place in a coastal town where the locals are known for fishing and boat building. As it turns out, work in these two professions has started to decrease. Most young local men have deserted the town and started heading to the capital to look to for work They claim that the sea's fortune has run short and that a container of fish is not enough to fulfill their dreams and ambitions. Sheik Ibrahim, one of the wise and rich men of the town, was a vital catalyst in the migration of the work force. For it is in the sake of his big investments, that everyone talks of but no one seems to know what they are and who are his Omani and foreign partners. He offers people to buy off their old fishing boats, even their old homes which are close to the coast. No one stands in his way but a elder man in his fifties Nokhithah(Captain) Salem "Abu Zahir", who has long relationship with the sea since his childhood. It is said that his son Zahir has gone off to sea on a fishing trip and has not returned This is why he waiting for him while raising, Noor, a girl he has betrothed for Zahir. Abu Zahir insists on fixing old fishing boats. Sheik Ibrahim finds the Nokhithah as an obstacle in his way to achieve his investments. So he starts fighting him by any means, one of which was spreading false rumors about an illegitimate relationship with his son's fiancée Noor; Sheik Ibrahim even raises doubts about the existence of Zahir that everyone heard of but never seen on first hand.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsSima Mobarak-ShahiShayesteh IraniAyda SadeqiThe struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
- DirectorÖzer KiziltanStarsErkan CanMeray ÜlgenGüven KiraçA promotion brings a Muslim's relationship with God into question.
- DirectorEran KolirinStarsSasson GabayRonit ElkabetzSaleh BakriA band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.
- DirectorHana MakhmalbafStarsAbbas AlijomeAbdolali HoseinaliNikbakht NoruzIn Afghanistan, a young girl wants to go to school and learn to read and write, but is met with hostility or indifference.
- DirectorAmin MatalqaStarsNadim SawalhaRana SultanHussein Al-SousWhen an old airport janitor finds a captain's hat in the trash, he gets pulled into the lives of children in his poor neighborhood. He weaves imaginary stories of his world adventures to offer hope in the face of their harsh reality.
- DirectorShahram MokriStarsSaeed EbrahimifarSina RazaniHutan MokriAt times, the world is filled with things we cannot understand. [Ashkan, the Charmed Ring and Other Stories] reveals the complicated interlinked chains of the world that people cannot comprehend. Shahrooz and Reza try to rob a jewelry shop despite their blindness. Hotel employee Ashkan tries again and again to kill himself. He meets Shahrooz and Reza and joins in their crime. To Ashkan, this is only another means of suicide. But this is not the whole story.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsNegar ShaghaghiAshkan KoshanejadHamed BehdadIranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert - and the visas that allow them to leave Tehran to do so.
- DirectorVaruzh Karim-MasihiStarsHamed KomailyBahram RadanTaraneh AlidoostiSiavash Roozbehan is a young man and he has lost his father after his mysterious suicide.His uncle is managing his father's wealth. He is in love with his cousin Mahtab whose father is his uncle's councilor. Siavash gradually realizes that his uncle is going to marry his mother. After some days he also sees a lot of similarities between his own life and of Shakespeare's Hamlet. He goes to Garo, his best friend, and they try to change the end of the tragic story.
- DirectorSemih KaplanogluStarsBora AltasErdal BesikçiogluTülin ÖzenThe quiet life of a boy and his family is endangered when his father does not return home from his work collecting honey in the forest.
- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorNadine LabakiStarsClaude Baz MoussawbaaNadine LabakiYvonne MaaloufA group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.
- 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.
- DirectorKarzan KaderStarsZamand TahaSarwar FazilDiya MariwanThe story is about two brothers want to travel to america and the adventures that they face in the journey.
- DirectorNahid GhobadiBijan ZmanpiraStarsReza BehbudiAmin SadeghiMehdi SakiA government official travels across Iranian Kurdistan on a mission to stop 111 young women from committing suicide. An official selection of the prestigious, award-winning Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative. (Farsi and Kurdish w. English subs.)
- DirectorDror MorehStarsAmi AyalonAvraham ShalomAvi DichterA documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets.
- DirectorHaifaa Al-MansourStarsWaad MohammedReem AbdullahAbdullrahman Al GohaniAn enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsStephen DorffAbdallah El AkalAlice TaglioniBeirut, 1982: a young Palestinian refugee helps an Israeli fighter pilot escape from PLO captivity because he wants to visit his ancestral family home. En route through war-torn Lebanon their relationship develops into a close bond.
- DirectorShahram MokriStarsBabak KarimiSaeed EbrahimifarSiavash Cheraghi PourA number of students have traveled to the Caspian region in order to participate in a kite-flying event during the winter solstice. Next to their camp is a small hut occupied by three cooks who work at a nearby restaurant.
- DirectorHiner SaleemStarsKorkmaz ArslanGolshifteh FarahaniSuat UstaBaran, a Kurdish independence war hero, is now sheriff in Erbil, the capital city. No longer feeling useful in this society now at peace, he thinks about quitting the police force, but instead agrees to be stationed in a small valley, at the very borders of Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. It is a lawless territory, right at the heart of illegal drug, medication and alcohol trafficking. Having arrived in the small village, he refuses to bow down to Aga Azzi, the seriously corrupt tribal chief and absolute ruler of the area. Baran meets Govend, the village school teacher, who is also rejected by the villagers. Like Baran, she represents another law, that of the young and autonomous Kurdish state. Govend is all the more vulnerable as she is not a married woman.
- DirectorJano RosebianiStarsEnwer ShexaniKatrin EnderHussein Hassan AliSet in a fictional town of Kurdava, "One Candle, Two Candles" deals with the issue of arranged marriage and honor-related violence against women. Young Viyan, is forcibly given to wealthy older businessman, Hemmo. When on the wedding night she runs out of the bedroom and climbs a tree, refusing to sleep with him, the respected bridegroom loses face and becomes the laughing-stock of the town. In return, he punishes her by locking her up in the bedroom. The more the townsfolk mock him the more violent he becomes. To add fuel to the fire, a traveling young artist, Botan tries to reach out to her with a proposal to elope. "One Candle, Two Candles" is populated with colorful characters, including a few misfits with eyebrow-raising sense of humor; intertwined subplots; and a surprise ending.
- DirectorNaji Abu NowarStarsJacir Eid Al-HwietatHussein Salameh Al-SweilhiyeenHassan Mutlag Al-MaraiyehIn the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming-of-age as he embarks on a perilous desert journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination.
- DirectorDeniz Gamze ErgüvenStarsGünes SensoyDoga Zeynep DogusluTugba SungurogluWhen five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiNasrin SotoudehBanned from making movies by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about social challenges in Iran.
- DirectorMohamed DiabStarsNilli KarimHany AdelMuhammad El-SebaiSet entirely in an 8m police truck, a number of detainees from different political and social backgrounds are brought together by fate, during the turmoil that followed the ousting of former president Morsi from power.
- 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.