On a dusty hillside surrounded by olive trees, the children of Ketermaya play far away from the horrors of Syria. But life in the Lebanese refugee camp is far from easy. Disrupted education, the loss of loved ones, and the scars of war and chemical weapons weigh heavily in this extraordinary portrait of family and childhood innocence. An important corrective to narratives surrounding refugees, and a moving fable of hope and resilience in unimaginable circumstances
'Loving' celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry – making their love story an inspiration to couples everywhere.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2016 - Gala Presentations
Parveen will always see her daughter Khadejah as a little girl. However, on Khadejah's 18th birthday, the tender bond between mother and daughter is strained as Parveen is left to face one of her biggest fears.
Cosmo, a South African pianist falls in love with Sakeena, a British Muslim ballerina, who is being forced into an arranged marriage by her abusive radicalised Uncle Jehandar.
Through their struggle, Cosmo tries to show that the power of love is far more important than the love for power. Cosmo seems like the perfect choice for Sakeena, but he is running away from a dark past which catches up with him as he tries to prove his love for Sakeena. Only ever wanting true happiness, the pair begin to fight for their freedom to love each other, but this leads to her family discovering the truth about their relationship.
Feeling betrayed, her Uncle Jehandar arranges an honour killing and promises her family that she will never step a foot out line once he's finished with her.
Cairo cardiologist Bassem Youssef ('the Egyptian Jon Stewart') quit surgery to front the hugely popular TV satire Al Bernameg (The Show) amid the country’s turbulent Arab Spring-led political upheavals. Youssef ultimately fell foul of government crackdowns. His programme was cancelled and he was forced to flee the country with his family.
This fascinating, fearless and often very funny documentary charts Youssef’s incredible late-career shift, detailing his and his team's determination and courage in standing up to successive totalitarian regimes, reminding us just how potent and dangerous comedy really can be.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand
"and we have killed him" is a visually experimental film, loosely based around "the parable of the man" in "thus spoke zarathustra" by friedrich nietzsche. this film is an exploration of the exploitation of god, and alina (tanya howard) is tired of listening to what others have told her to believe in.
Having crossed the Channel Tunnel, a desperate refugee finds two old tramps at a forest’s edge and has to help them with the body of their last night deceased alcoholic friend to gain trust, unaware of being followed by a policewoman.
'Hannibal in Rafah: A Reconstruction of One Bloody Day in the 2014 Gaza War from User Generated Videos'
A detailed reconstruction of the events on one day in Rafah, Gaza during the 'Hannibal Directive', drawing on material produced by the Forensic Architecture project.
The project stemmed from an examination of the Israeli army’s response to the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and its implementation of the Hannibal Directive – a controversial command designed to deal with captures of soldiers by unleashing massive firepower on persons, vehicles and buildings in the vicinity of the attack, despite the risk to civilians and the captured soldier(s).
"Because our investigation team was denied access to Gaza, Forensic Architecture developed a number of techniques aiming to reconstruct the events from hundreds of images and videos recorded by professional and citizen-journalists. The images were thereafter located in a 3D model of Rafah. This resulted to the Image Complex, a device that allowed us to explore the spatial and temporal connections between the various sources and reconstruct the unfolding of events. Forensic Architecture... also located witness testimonies, delivered after the war, within this 3D model, and corroborated the reported events with other audio-visual material." The resulting report was presented as a Human Rights case by Amnesty International.
'Hannibal in Rafah: A Reconstruction of One Bloody Day in the 2014 Gaza War from User Generated Video' is a selection of clips taken from the project, composed and brought together in a text presentation.
Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Forum Expanded - Visionary Archives
Set to the verses of W.H. Auden's 1939 poem 'Refugee Blues', the film charts a day in 'the jungle', the refugee camp outside Calais. More intimate and unlike much of what has been seen in the mass media, this documentary poem counterpoints the camp’s harsh reality of frequent clashes with the French riot police with its inhabitants’ longing for a better future.
Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Generation 14plus - World premiere
