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“To your people, your son is worth 1,000 of mine.” This striking line from Oscar-nominated director Farah Nabulsi’s feature debut The Teacher draws inspiration from the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, in which one Israeli soldier was released in exchange for 1,027 prisoners, the majority of whom were Palestinians and Arab-Israelis.

Nabulsi’s tense drama follows a Palestinian schoolteacher named Basem (Saleh Bakri) who forms a bond with one of his students and must weigh a sacrifice to protect his future, while also forming a connection with a British social worker Lisa (Imogen Poots).

With the film now arriving in theaters from Watermelon Pictures, I spoke to Nabulsi about the origins of the story, shooting on-location in Palestine, the heightened emotional resonance since its TIFF 2023 premiere, inviting those not empathetic to the Palestinian struggle to view the film, and more.

The Film Stage: To start, what was the inspiration for focusing on...

With her feature debut “The Teacher,” Palestinian British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi attempts to shine a light on the absurd indignities of living under military occupation. Set in the West Bank — where it was also filmed, over a three-month period — the 2023 Toronto Film Festival selection follows a troubled Palestinian schoolteacher wrestling with his political allegiances at a particularly fraught time for a student he takes under his wing.

Nabulsi’s inter-generational drama is carefully composed, though the movie’s other subplots (concerning its handful of American and British characters) tend to be more stilted. Where “The Teacher” most succeeds is in its deft balance between the internal and external realities of its Arab protagonists, which are constantly forced out of alignment by the violence around them.

With winding shots of English teacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) driving to work, Nablusi introduces us to the movie’s tense but warm and picturesque atmosphere,...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2023 TIFF coverage. The Teacher opens in theaters on April 11 from Watermelon Pictures.

Writer-director Farah Nabulsi brilliantly showcased the abject futility of living under occupation with her Oscar-nominated short The Present a couple years ago. By taking the seemingly mundane act of going shopping for an anniversary gift and portraying how cruelly impossible it can become when people with guns take it upon themselves to make it so, she evoked the tired frustration and unavoidable rage that Palestinians must endure on a daily basis. It should come as no surprise, then, that her feature debut The Teacher would follow suit, mirroring the additional runtime with a much more robust example.

Yet there’s the immediate sense of too many subplots bouncing around at the start. Between the drama surrounding the harassment of brothers Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) and Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri...

Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2021 for her film The Present, and her feature debut, The Teacher, is perhaps even more impressive. One of the most adroitly written and directed political dramas in recent memory, The Teacher struggles to balance its narrative threads but never loses sight of the intention of the story being told and images being constructed.

The Teacher Review

The Teacher follows a Palestinian schoolteacher who is forced to choose between his commitment to political resistance and the safety of himself and those he loves, including a student with whom he forms a fatherly bond and an aid worker with whom he finds unexpected kinship. It’s a simple story but one that is told in a way that reveals deeper layers of meaning and emotion if you are willing to explore them.

RelatedWarfare Review — Alex Garland...

While our sprawling summer movie preview will arrive by the end of the month, we’ll first take a comprehensive look at the April releases to have on your radar. Featuring festival favorites from as far back as early last year finally getting a theatrical run to at least one studio tentpole that piques our interest, dive in below.

13. Magic Farm (Amalia Ulman; April 25)

While not quite delivering on the promise she showed in her first feature El Planeta, Amalia Ulman’s Magic Farm is a zany odyssey that finds the satire in Vice News-type journalism. Kent M. Wilhelm said in his Sundance review, “I was sold on the premise of satirizing opportunistic content creators who play dress-up as journalists, but weaving that into the storylines of the ensemble cast is no easy task for a sophomore feature. The plot gets lost; when it feels like there’s too much going on,...

Following No Other Land‘s major Oscar win earlier this week, more films capturing the plight of the Palestinian people are getting wider distribution here in the United States. This spring, Oscar-nominated director Farah Nabulsi’s TIFF-selected drama The Teacher, starring Saleh Bakri and Imogen Poots, will get a release from Watermelon Pictures. Ahead of an April 11 release, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “A Palestinian school teacher struggles to reconcile his risky commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) and the chance of a new relationship with a volunteer worker.”

Jared Mobarak said in his TIFF review, “Writer-director Farah Nabulsi brilliantly showcased the abject futility of living under occupation with her Oscar-nominated short The Present a couple years ago. By taking the seemingly mundane act of going shopping for an anniversary gift and...

After British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s 2020 short was nominated for an Oscar and won a BAFTA for Best Short Film, all eyes were on what she’d do next. Now, her feature-length follow “The Teacher” finally hits theaters after its world premiere at TIFF 2023.

Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025

“The Teacher” stars Saleh Bakri as a Palestinian school teacher forced to balance his political ideals with his deep bonds with one of his students and a British social worker, played by Imogen Poots.

Continue reading ‘The Teacher’ Trailer: Imogen Poots & Saleh Bakri Star In Gripping Palestinian Drama [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Mad Distribution, the pan-Arab releasing arm of Cairo-based pan-Arab film company Mad Solutions, has acquired all Middle East and North African rights to Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36.

The hot-button epic about Palestine’s 1936 revolt against British colonial rule features Jeremy Irons (A Reversal of Fortunes), Hiam Abbas (Succession) and Kamel El Basha (The Idol) in a high-profile international cast.

The film is expected to release theatrically in late 2025 following a festival launch.

The Arab all-rights distribution deal with Mad comes just a few days after France’s mk2 films and newly launched company Lucky Number announced they were joining forces to handle international sales on Jacir’s film which was previously known as All Before You.

The international co-production involves Jacir and Ossama Bawardi’s Philistine Films, Autonomous, Corniche Media, Mk Productions, and Snowglobe.

The drama follows the character of Yusuf as he drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem,...

Exclusive: France’s mk2 films and newly launched company Lucky Number are joining forces on international sales for Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s epic period drama Palestine 36, previously titled All Before You, for an EFM launch.

Distributors already signed up for the picture include Curzon Film for the UK, Haut et Court for France and Trignon for Switzerland.

The sales partners have unveiled first images and revealed Jeremy Iron’s presence in the ensemble cast alongside Hiam Abbass (Succession), Kamel Al Basha (House Of Gods), Yasmine Al-Massri (The Strangers Case), Jalal Altawil (Green Border), Robert Aramayo (The Lord of the RIngs: The Rings Of Power), Saleh Bakri (Blue Caftan), Yafa Bakri, Karim Daoud Anaya, Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple), Dhafer L’Abidine (To My Son) and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones).

Key crew on the film include cinematographer Hélène Louvart, editor Tania Reddin (Hard Truths), production designer Nael Kanj (The Teacher,...

Watermelon Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s timely drama “The Teacher,” which is shot and set in the West Bank.

The film takes its cue from a real prisoners’ swap that took place in 2011, when Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one soldier who had been kidnapped by Palestinian militants.

In “The Teacher,” a Palestinian school teacher played by Saleh Bakri struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students. There is also a subplot involving his romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker, played by Imogen Poots (“The Father”).

The film, which is produced by Sawsan Asfari (Cocoon Films), Ossama Bawardi (Philistine Films) and Nabulsi (Native Liberty Productions), has been well-received on the festival circuit after premiering at Toronto Film Festival in 2023. “The Teacher” scored awards at last year’s Galway Film Fleadh,...

At the beginning of Cherien Dabis’ sweeping historical drama All That’s Left of You, a protest erupts in a refugee camp. It’s 1980 in the occupied West Bank and Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman, excellent), a self-assured and energetic Palestinian teenager, joins the demonstration. While he’s among the throng of neighbors, friends and strangers, shots are fired by Israeli soldiers and Noor ducks for cover. A blunt cut follows (editing by Tina Baz), and in the next scene his mother Hanan (Dabis) solemnly stares at the camera. She is here to tell us about her son, she says, but in order to understand him, she must start from the beginning.

Premiering at Sundance, All That’s Left of You traces one Palestinian family’s history from 1948 through the recent present. The film marks Dabis’ third time at the festival, where her previous features Amreeka and May in the Summer both debuted.

A sprawling, gripping drama that starts with the foundation of the state of Israel and the displacement of Palestinian families in Jaffa, then ends two years shy of the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left of You considers generational trauma on both an intimate and epic scale. Following more than seven decades in the life of the Hammad family, orange-growers who were expelled from their land in Jaffa in 1948, the film is a gateway to understanding decades of Palestinian trauma borne of the immense Jewish trauma of the Holocaust. The film ultimately grows from anger into a call for reconciliation, with a moving ending that does not diminish either generational trauma but lands in a place of surprising nuance.

The film’s center is a peaceful yet rightfully angry family placed in an impossible situation: do they leave their ancestral land or stay and hope the better angels eventually prevail?...

In “All That’s Left of You (اللي باقي منك),” the immensity of a bloody history that has taken and continues to take countless lives is seen through the eyes of a single family trying to endure when all they hold dear is at risk of being lost forever. It’s also authentically, tragically and urgently true to the lived reality of far too many. Set in the West Bank, the film is about mass displacement, state violence and the agony that comes from it. Much like the outstanding, yet unfortunately still undistributed, Oscar-nominated documentary “No Other Land,” it’s a deeply painful, necessary watch that confronts the way cruelty and repression leaves deep, lasting wounds over lifetimes. But some blunt narrative decisions and a rushed conclusion ultimately keep “All That’s Left of You” from greatness.

At its core,”All That’s Left of You” brings an admirable sense of care to its crushing story,...

In her feature film work, Palestinian-American writer-director-actor Cherien Dabis has been telling intimately specific familial stories since “Amreeka” (2009). That was the filmmaker’s elegant, modestly scaled and altogether brilliant debut about a Palestinian mother and son, moving from the occupied West Bank to Chicago upon winning a green card lottery. Dabis wasn’t able to seize the same level of narrative confidence in “May in the Summer” (2013), but certain moments and ideas in her new film, “All That’s Left of You,” remind one of her panache as a storyteller, even if her sprawling epic about a family marked by longstanding generational trauma feels needlessly bloated in the aftermath.

Still, one can’t entirely blame Dabis for being a little indulgent with her latest, which follows a Palestinian family, at first barely surviving, then living under the Israeli occupation through almost eight decades, across three generations. Despite the ongoing devastation in the territory,...

The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is a little over a week away and it’s time for us to talk about movies that will be the talk of Sundance, movies that push the envelope of imagination and reality, movies that should not be missed and lastly underrated movies that are a must watch as well. The list below is not comprehensive and the goal is not to rank order any of the movies in this list. From films by critically acclaimed directors like Ira Sachs and Richard Linklater to actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Diego Luna, Olivia Coleman, Dev Patel, Jennifer Lopez and Rose Bryne, the list also focuses on independent films by new exciting directors and filmmakers to look out for in the future. In no particular order, we are listing 25 feature films that are a must watch if you are planning to check out the festival.

Jimpa...

The Sundance Film Festival is once again upon us! Set to happen from January 23rd to February 2nd in Park City, Utah (with an online component from January 30th to Feb 2nd), the official schedule was unveiled today, and once again it’s an eclectic mix of indie fare, award hopefuls, and horror flicks. Once again, I’ll be there for JoBlo, filing a ton of reviews. To note, in recent years, Sundance has become especially well known for genre fare, with Hereditary, Talk to Me, and I Saw the TV Glow all premiering in the midnight section of the fest. This year’s Midnight selection includes some very buzzy titles:

Dead Lover / Canada –– A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments,...

The Match Factory will handle international sales for director Cherien Dabis’ decades spanning family saga “All That’s Left of You.”

Currently in post-production and by all accounts among the most anticipated projects presented at this year’s Atlas Workshops, the film follows three generations of a Palestinian family, tracking cycles of trauma beginning with the 1948 displacement from Jaffa and continuing through occupation, violence and present day heartbreak in the West Bank.

An acclaimed filmmaker and actor, Dabis stars as well, anchoring the film as a devastated mother to a teenaged son injured by an Israeli soldier. As her son’s life hangs in the balance, the grief-struck woman tries to make sense of her family and people’s heritage. Actors – and brothers – Saleh Bakri (“The Blue Caftan”) and Adam Bakri (“Omar”) co-star alongside father Mohammad Bakri, making the project a truly intergenerational portrait.

Produced by Pallas Film, Twenty Twenty Vision and Amp Filmworks,...

Spike Lee will head up the jury for the upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival.

The decorated Malcolm X filmmaker will preside over the features competition jury, which last year saw Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. Lee will also participate in the Festival’s In Conversation strand, sharing insights.

For this year’s edition, the fourth, 16 features have been selected from the past year, with the winners being selected by Lee and the Jury to receive the Yusr Awards.

Lee is a cinema icon who won an Oscar for 2019’s BlacKkKlansman and has several more nominations. His past movies include Malcolm X, Da 5 Bloods and Do The Right Thing. He most recently received the National Medal of Arts and Humanities from Joe Biden.

Lee said: “Having been lucky enough...

When attempting to break into a nascent film industry, many filmmakers place their bets in tried and tested formats. Family dramas, romantic comedies, action thrillers. But, in the Arab region, where countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are still taking their first steps into building a robust film industry, filmmakers are tapping into highly connected, media-driven young audiences with their films.

Ahead of the 11th edition of the Sharjah Intl. Film Festival for Children and Youth, taking place between Oct. 6 and 12 in the UAE, three filmmakers spoke with Variety about the importance of specialized festivals in the region and the challenges that still lie ahead when it comes to making films for children and young audiences in an Arab world that is becoming increasingly Westernized.

“Yes, there is a gap in the market for youth-focused films in the region,” said Mariam Al Awadhi, whose latest film...

Set amidst the landscapes and communities of Palestine’s occupied West Bank, Farah Nabulsi’s feature film debut, “The Teacher” shines a light on the real-life impacts of the ongoing conflict. With Saleh Bakri leading the cast as Basem El Saleh, a dedicated schoolteacher wrestling with his own personal demons, the movie brings us deep inside the world of those living under constant pressures not of their own making.

Basem has chosen the path of nonviolence, yet still carries the scars of actions from earlier days. He forms strong bonds with his students, in particular the brothers Adam and Yacoub. But hopeful youth is all too easily shattered in a place where basic rights are so frequently trampled. When tragedy strikes the boys’ family, long-buried emotions are stirred in both Basem and the grieving Adam.

Threaded through their story is the politically charged case of an Israeli hostage and the...

Saleh Bakri commands the screen as a teacher promoting nonviolence, who falls for British volunteer Imogen Poots while trying to protect a student looking for revenge

Here is a drama-thriller from British-Palestinian film-maker Farah Nabulsi, set in the West Bank: a geopolitical vale of angry tears. There is some pretty broad-brush storytelling here, but it is really well acted, particularly by its male lead, Saleh Bakri, who might be remembered from his performance in Elia Suleiman’s autobiographical film The Time That Remains, playing the director’s father Fuad. (I also remember him in the 2013 Sicilian mob thriller Salvo.)

Here Bakri plays Basem, a hardworking, idealistic and careworn Palestinian teacher of English, estranged from his wife (who is now living in Hebron) and troubled by his past. Basem has evolved away from his former life of radical resistance, now espousing nonviolent action; he is therefore deeply worried by a neighbouring...

Israeli director Amos Gitai has batted back calls for a boycott of his new film Why War and said both sides of the Israel–Palestine conflict need to clean out their current leaderships for peace to prevail.

Premiering this weekend of out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, Why War takes its cue from correspondence in the early 1930s between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud on the question of the human race’s bellicose nature and how to avoid war. The work mixes reenactments of the two figures reciting their exchanges, with historic images of war in art and acted scenes of characters dealing with the psychological impact of conflict.

Although the movie has no direct connection to today’s conflict in the Middle East, Gitai and Why War have been the target of protests in Venice. Around 300 filmmakers signed an open letter opposing the movie, and Dani Rosenberg...

Around 300 filmmakers have signed an open letter opposing two Israeli films set to screen at the Venice Film Festival.

The protest by filmmakers and artists amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict is aimed at Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film Al Klavim Veanashim (Of Dogs and Men), which is set against the backdrop of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in southern Israel, and Amos Gitai’s Why War. The latter stars Irène Jacob, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot and Jérôme Kircher and is set for a world premiere on Aug. 31 out of competition.

“Of Dogs and Men, shot in the midst of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide. Like Of Dogs and Men, Why War was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing,” the letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia, states.

The artists are represented...

In August 2020, a devastating blast shook Beirut to its core. While rubble and heartbreak littered the streets in its wake, one production company remained committed to their upcoming film.

Costa Brava told the story of a family seeking refuge from corruption and pollution. As bombshell after bombshell rocked their battered city, the crew faced the immense challenge of mounting their meaningful drama amid the unfolding mayhem.

Director Mounia Akl and her talented team exemplified resilience as they worked to complete their story—a story that would come to reflect Lebanon’s own endurance against the odds.

Lebanon’s Interwoven Crises

The opening shots of “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano” take us back decades to gain crucial context. In Maroun Bagdadi’s “Whispers,” a poet wanders the ruins of war-torn Beirut. Her anguished words echo through time, capturing the aftermath of civil conflicts that tore her beloved city apart.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

Every summer, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invites a deluge of new members to join its ranks. Since #OscarsSoWhite back in 2015, the Academy has moved away from its elitist tendencies and toward embracing younger and more diverse artists and executives from all over the world. This year’s invited class is no exception.

If the invitees all accept Academy membership, the total members will number 10,910 and voting members 9,934. And with the addition of the 2024 members, 35 percent of Academy members identify as women, 20 percent of Academy members are from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, and 20 percent of Academy members are from countries or territories outside the U.S.

As usual, a slew of Oscar nominees and winners are gaining admittance to the club (71 Oscar nominees and 19 winners), including actors Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), costume designer Holly Waddington...

Jessica Alba, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Catherine O’Hara, and S.S. Rajamouli, director of “Rrr,” are among the 487 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With all expected acceptances, AMPAS membership will rise to 10,910 from 10,817 last year, with 9,934 members eligible to vote in the upcoming 97th Oscars in 2025—an increase from last year’s 9,375.

This year’s invitees include 44% women, a 4% increase from 2023, and 41% from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, marking a significant 7% rise. The actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary, executives, makeup artists and hairstylists branches have invited more women than men. The actors, directors, documentary, and writers branches mainly comprised artists from underrepresented communities.

The directors branch features the most impressive array of filmmakers from both international and domestic spheres, such as Lila Avilés (“Totem”), Jayro Bustamante (“La Llorona”), Jd Dillard (“Devotion”), Alice Diop (“Saint Omer”), Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

This year’s list across 19 branches include 2024 Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers; Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and production design team James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek; 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov, War Is Over! producer Brad Booker; The Zone of Interest sound duo Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn; the Godzilla Minus One VFX team Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki; American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson; and Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.

Jefferson and Triet are among eight names on the list who were invited to more than one branch (noted...

Sudanese first-timer Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan, has won top awards for both fest feature film and best screenplay at the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films that will be handed out today at the Plage des Palmes in Cannes.

The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes’ official selection, where it premiered in Un Certain Regard last year, “Goodbye Julia” (pictured) is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the war-ravaged country.

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s hybrid doc-drama “Four Daughters,” about an Arab mother contending with the Islamic radicalization and the sexual desires of her teenage daughters, scored three awards: best director for Ben Hania,...

The Arab Cinema Center has published this year's “Golden 101”, its annual list of the 101 most influential figures in Arab cinema in its 22nd edition of Arab Cinema Magazine, which is being circulated at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival and can be accessed on the Marché du Film website.

Celebrating individuals and institutions who have made the most significant impact on the Arab film industry over the past twelve months, this year's Golden 101 comprises of 13 directors, 16 producers, 14 actors, five crew members, 18 distributors from 12 institutions, 12 executives from 10 governmental cinema institutions, 11 executives from seven video-on-demand platforms, 11 representatives from seven festivals, and seven executives from film financing institutions.

Commenting on this year's Golden 101 list, Colin Brown, Mad Solutions' Managing Partner for International Operations said; “These are the artists, artisans, and power brokers who have distinguished themselves this past year – and the rest of the world should pay attention to them if...

The port explosion of 2020 damaged just about everything in the city and this painful but tender doc follows a film crew who try to resume work

‘How much bad news can you get in one day?” That’s the production manager of a Lebanese movie called Costa Brava, which is due to start shooting any day. But Beirut is in chaos. It’s 2020, just weeks after the catastrophic port explosion that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The blast destroyed the office of the production company, and cinematographer Joe Saade lost an eye. After agonised meetings, Costa Brava’s young director Mounia Akl and her crew have decided to go ahead with the shoot.

Filmed by Cyril Aris, this fly-on-the-wall study is a painful watch, with some heartbreaking moments; but it’s tender too, and funny. As the shoot date approaches, the film looks doomed. A currency crisis triggered...

Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters lead the nominations for the 8th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Both features picked up seven nominations apiece for the awards, focused on Arab films that were produced and premiered outside of the Arab world in 2023. Overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), it was voted on by 209 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during Cannes on May 18.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

This year’s nominees range from Sudan,...

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s Lupita Nyong’o-EPed drama Goodbye Julia lead the nominations in the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Hybrid work Four Daughters, exploring the story of a real-life Tunisian mother who lost two of her daughters to Isis after they were radicalized by a local preacher, world premiered in Competition in Cannes last year.

The film won Cannes’ Golden Eye for Best Documentary and also went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Kordofani’s Khartoum-set drama Goodbye Julia was also at Cannes in 2023, making history as the first Sudanese film to play in the festival across its 76 editions, with a debut in Un Certain Regard. It represented Sudan at in the 2023-24 Oscar race but was not nominated.

Set against the backdrop of the 2011 South Sudan Independence referendum,...

To say there is quite a bit of debate surrounding the situation facing Palestinians in Gaza right now is a gross understatement. On one side, you have the Israeli government justifying violence based on the Hamas attack last October. And on the other side, you have the Palestinian people getting killed by the thousands with no end in sight, with some calling it a genocide. But even though it feels like a relatively new situation for many people who started to really pay attention to what’s happening, this is a war that has been raging for decades.

Continue reading ‘The Teacher’ Trailer: Saleh Bakri & Imogen Poots Star In Farah Nabulsi’s Acclaimed Palestinian Drama at The Playlist.

British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi returns to her roots by shooting a film entirely in Palestine, particularly in Burin over three months, in an effort to highlight the issues the people in the area face.

The Teacher is screening at Red Sea Film Festival

Palestinian schoolteacher Basem grapples with loss after a tragic event involving his son, channeling his grief on helping his students, and particularly two brothers who come from the same village he does: Yakoub, who has just been released after two years detention in a military prison and currently acts as his brother's, Adam, “bodyguard”, with the latter being the brains and him the muscles as he so eloquently mentions in one of the first scenes of the movie. Lisa, a new social worker, also tries to help Yakoub, which is what brings her closer to Basem. At the same time, a high-profile American attorney and his wife...

he Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) marked the closing of its third edition with a screening of Micheal Mann's Ferrari, a Red Sea International Film Financing project, and revealed the winners of its highly anticipated Yusr Awards. The festival also welcomed Hollywood icon Nicolas Cage, receiving a Red Sea Honoree award, and joining the 2023 Honoree line-up of Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh, and Abdullah Al-Sadhan. Kristoffer Borgli's comedy horror Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, will screen as the Final Festival Gala on Saturday 9th December.

Two juries deliberated to finally select winners across 14 categories; led by Jury President Baz Luhrmann. Seventeen films in competition, as well as 23 shorts, were in the running for the coveted awards.

The festival this year celebrated its biggest year yet in terms of attendance – welcoming almost 6,000 accredited guests and selling more than 40,000 tickets across all screenings and In Conversations.

The Closing Ceremony...

Oscar winner Nicholas Cage received a Red Sea Honouree award

Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).

A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...

The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.

Elvis director and two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann headed the Rea Sea jury, which handed out awards in 17 categories.

The Saudi Arabian fest also gave a Red Sea Honorary Award to Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, whose Dream Scenario will close the festival on December 9, joined fellow 2023 honorees Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh and Abdullah Al-Sadhan.

“Over the past eight days, we have welcomed the world to Jeddah and celebrated this vibrant global film community together – with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties,” said Jomana Al-Rashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia,...

At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn.

The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”

The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...

Zarrar Khan’s In Flames has picked up the Yusr Award for best competition film at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.

Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.

The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.

The production had to abandon plans to film in Palestine after the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war.

Saleh Bakri and Adam Bakri are to star in All That’s Left Of You, the upcoming drama from Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis.

Salah is known for Cannes award-winner The Blue Caftan and recent Toronto title The Teacher, which plays in Competition at this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival, while brother Adam made his feature debut in Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar, going on to star in Asif Kapadia’s Ali And Nino and award-winning Toronto 2022 title A Gaza Weekend.

Hayy Cinema at Art Jameel hosted a special event with Red Sea International Film Festival.

Hayy Cinema, Saudi Arabia’s first independent cinema venue, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its launch on Sunday, December 3, screening a restoration of Badrakhan’s 1941 Egyptian drama Victory Of Youth.

The cinema, which is situated at the Art Jameel arts complex in northern Jeddah, hosted the event in collaboration with Red Sea Film, welcoming local and international attendees from the festival.

The cinema has screened over 180 Saudi, regional and international films since its launch on December 6 last year. The most popular titles have been the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda,...

Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” a drama revolving around the love between a closeted man and his wife, has sold more than 500,000 tickets around the world.

The Arabic-language movie, which world premiered at Cannes in 2022 and won the Fipresci prize, has sold the most admissions overseas than any other Moroccan film in recent history, according to French promotion org Unifrance. “The Blue Caftan” was particularly successful in France, where it sold 214,000 admissions, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Japan.

Produced by leading Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri.

Touzani’s follow-up to Un Certain Regard title “Adam,” “The Blue Caftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a married couple running 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...

Exclusive: Germany’s second biggest broadcasting network Ard has said it pulled Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib from its schedule this weekend due to concerns over its “narrative perspective” amid the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict.

Ard – which is a joint channel involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – has been accused of censorship by the filmmakers.

“In the context of the drastic social and (global) political events, we checked, as per our standard procedure, as to whether our planned program offerings were in line with the current situation,” Ard said in a statement sent to Deadline.

“We had already included the film Wajib you mentioned in our programming a few months ago. However, given the recent events in the Middle East, we currently believe it is not correctly placed in the program as it could be misunderstood due to its narrative perspective.”

Quizzed by Deadline on what aspects of the film...

Exclusive: German broadcasting network Ard has been accused of censorship following its decision to pull a scheduled broadcast of Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib due to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The film’s German co-producer Titus Kreyenberg told Deadline that Wajib had been due to air this Sunday (November 19), with the programming slot set for months and already announced in TV listings.

“It’s been taken off the schedule. Internally, we were told that it was decided that this was not the time to show a Palestinian film,” said Kreyenberg who works under the banner of Berlin and Cologne-based Unafilm with recent credits including Octopus Skin and A Woman.

Deadline has contacted Ard – a joint network involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – as well as Hamburg-based member Ndr, which backed the production. The networks have yet to respond.

Jacir’s drama Wajib is a gentle comedy-drama capturing the reality of Palestinians living within Israeli borders.

Film Clinic is set to dominate the lineup of the highly anticipated third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival — which is scheduled to run from Nov 30, 2023 – Sat, Dec 9, 2023 — with the prolific production and distribution shingle boasting four of its titles in the festival. Coming in first in Arab Spectacular section titles Hajjan and Four Daughters. In Competition — Backstage and showcasing in the Festival Favourites section — Animalia.

Hajjan

Abu Bakr Shawky's latest Hajjan, produced by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) & Film Clinic. It had its World Premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival.– It is also produced by Mohamed Hefzy and Majed Zuhair Samman, co-produced by The

Imaginarium Films' Rula Nasser, and distributed by Film Clinic Indie Distribution in the Arab world while Film Constellation has the

worldwide rights. It revolves around brothers Matar and Ghanim, who live in the endless desert of Saudi Arabia.

The Teacher, the feature debut of British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi that recently had it world premiere in Toronto, has been acquired by Front Row Filmed Entertainment for the Middle East and North Africa.

The deal marks the second collaboration between Nabulsi and Front Row, with the Dubai-based banner having distributed and globally sold her previous short film The Present to Netflix, prior to it landing an BAFTA award and an Oscar nomination.

Set and shot in the West Bank city of Nablus and staring Saleh Bakri (Alam, The Blue Caftan) and Imogen Poots (The Father, HBO’s I Know This Much Is True), The Teacher follows the story of a Palestinian school teacher as he struggles to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students and the chance of a new romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker. Sawsan Asfari (Hany Abu-Assad...

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has boarded Mena distribution of Palestinian drama The Teacher, which enjoyed a buzzy world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

The acquisition marks the company’s second collaboration with British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi.

It previously distributed her Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning short film The Present, selling it to streaming giant Netflix prior it buzzy 2021 awards season run.

The Teacher is produced by Sawsan Asfari (Huda’s Salon), Osama Bawardi and Nabulsi.

Saleh Bakri (The Blue Caftan) stars as a Palestinian school teacher, struggling to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students and the chance of a new romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker, played by Imogen Poots.

The film was shot entirely in the West Bank in the city of Nablus.

For more on Venice's standout films, read our dispatch coverage: "Biopics Reloaded" and "Hitmen, A.I., and Dangerous Women."Poor Things.Main Competition(Jury: Damien Chazelle (chair), Saleh Bakri, Jane Campion, Mia Hansen-Løve, Gabriele Mainetti, Martin McDonagh, Santiago Mitre, Laura Poitras, and Shu Qi)Golden Lion: Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)Silver Lion Best Director: Matteo Garrone (Io Capitano)Special Jury Prize: Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)Best Screenplay: Pablo Larraín and Guillermo Calderón (El Conde)Best Actress: Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)Best Actor: Peter Sarsgaard (Memory)Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Seydou Sarr (Io Capitano)Explanation For Everything.HORIZONSJury: Jonas Carpignano (chair), Kaouther Ben Hania, Kahlil Joseph, Jean-Paul Salomé, and Tricia Truttle)Best Film: Explanation For Everything (Gábor Reisz)Best Director: Mika Gustafson (Paradise Is Burning)Special Jury Prize: Una Sterminata Domenica (Alain Parroni)Best Actress:...