Across the Waters

Director: Sana Bilgrami

Year: 2005

In 1955, a young girl travelled from a village in Pakistan to the remote and beautiful Scottish island of Lewis. When, fifty years later, her granddaughter is leaving the island, three generations of Pakistani Muslim women and an old Gaelic islander tell us a story of exile and belonging.

Director: Sana Bilgrami

Year: 2006

Tree Fellers is the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropical rainforests of British Honduras to help Britain fight fascism by felling trees in Scotland. Sam (93), Eric (87) and Amos (86) were among those who stayed on after the war to make new lives in a country where, for better or worse, the colour of their skin marked them out. Newly discovered archive, long-cherished memories and a last reunion are intertwined in this lyrical and moving documentary testament.

Director: Hasan Kattan

Year: 2026

For 14 years, Syrian filmmakers Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi have journeyed together through war and storytelling. Their bond was forged on the frontlines of revolution where their cameras recorded terror and hope, laughter and heartbreak – moments that defined a generation. Years later, their story takes an unexpected turn. Confined inside a UK asylum hotel, Hasan and Fadi document a new chapter shaped not by bombs, but by waiting, bureaucracy, and exile. Amid rising anti-refugee hostility, they turn the camera inward exploring friendship and displacement and how filming itself becomes an act of survival when the future is so uncertain. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere