Short Films

Refugees in Germany, Aisha, her husband Jamel, and their son Samir have fled the Yarmouk camp in Syria. Welcomed into a house provided by public reception institutions, they try to acclimate to their new life des- pite the untimely visits of a rigid municipal agent. One day, the agent introduces them to Maria and So- fia, a mother and daughter who are fleeing the Rus- sian-Ukrainian war. The two families are forced to live together despite their different lifestyles and the suffe- ring they endure in exile.

The camera's eye returns obsessively to the same places, a vertical perspective that imposes control, the possession of archaeological sites, stones lying for thousands years in the desert. The places it observes, however, are not deserted: we see, as if glimpsed from afar, the peasants working the land, themselves transformed into landscape. Something disturbs the stillness of the place: explosions on land and in the sea prepare the ground for new cities with new names, new forests.
This landscape is transformed into a scenography of appropriation.

Amplified is an intimate portrayal of Hind, a charming young Karate athlete with a hearing disability. Following a violating incident at the Karate center, Hind’s world gets distorted. The sensual narrative, accompanied by an authentic sonic experience, dives into what happens when safe spaces are shattered in the ugliest of ways. Through her eyes and ears, we sway between the tenderness and harshness of pain, the silence and the noise, and the hidden and the manifest.

Madeline goes every morning to the sea and works on a tourist boat in the sea despite the dangers she faces being the only girl working in the sea, she sacrifices her life to support her family... After her father was attacked a year ago on an Israeli boat in the sea and she lost the boat, She bravely worked on a fishing boat, becoming the first girl to work at sea in the Gaza Strip. A human story told by Madeleine, her work on a tourist boat in a port, and her story with the sea and the camp in which she lives.

A close friend is asked to start an investigation before an inevitable act occurs. Interlacing images, textures, movements, traces, and sounds from over a century, Letter to a Friend recounts in minute detail a home and street in Bethlehem.

Animation: Ahmad Habash
Sound Design: Emily Jacir
Sound Mixer: Firas Mukarkar

Vibrations from Gaza is a short documentary that offers a glimpse into the resilience and survival of Palestinian Deaf children in Gaza, who are enduring Israel’s siege and frequent military onslaught.

Forming an imagery of complex memory, archive, story, and imagination, this film is a learnt way to place my existence within a narrative. And so, I look for the scents they carry in the jasmine vines.

Animation: Carine Zahner
Music: Carol Ibrahim (Violin), Mostafa Saad (Oud)
Editor: Sonya Mwambu 
Sound Design: Nada El-Omari

Laila, a Palestinian-American drummer, visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack. But her nefarious goals slowly unfold as they delve deeper into the mystical night full of Turkish coffee fortune readings, maqluba, and past trauma. The film is a macabre fable about two generations of immigrants struggling to deal with displacement, life in the diaspora, and mortality.

A journey inside Gilboa prison reveals the recurring events during the escape operation of six prisoners from within the most fortified prison in the world.

Director and Producer: Bayan Shaheen.
Cast: Salim Asbah, Andrea Abukhader, Faris Rinawi.
Sound: Mohammad Azza.
Photography Assistant: Anas Mara.
Supervision: Aamer Abumatar.
Special Thanks to Nayef Shaqur.

As Saamidah, a young Palestinian-American girl, anxiously starts her first day of school, she finds her identity in question when faced with a world map that doesn't include her homeland.

Scriptwriter: Rifk Ebeid & Iman Zawahry
Cast: Jannah Ebeid, Aizzah Fatima, Waseem Alzer
Music: Abed Hathot, Akram Haddad
Editor: Grace Ibrahim
Sound Designer: Barbaros Kaynak
Songs: El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe
Producer: Rifk Ebeid