There’s something special about hearing your language on screen and watching beautiful, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking stories told in Arabic and Persian. Here is a list of North African & Middle Eastern TIFF movies to look out for this festival.
TIFF is back September 5 – 15, 2024 for its 49th edition — 11 days of Canadian and international cinema. Expect special events and talks with some of the biggest names in film. Including TIFF’s Industry Conference: a place to connect with film professionals and explore the art and business of cinema.
No Other Land
One of the most urgent films of the year and winner of jury and audience prizes at the Berlin Film Festival, No Other Land offers an essential and unflinching look at life under Israeli military occupation.
Front Row
In his 19th feature film, prolific Algerian movie maestro Merzak Allouache (Omar Gatlato; The Rooftops; Divine Wind, TIFF ’18) opts for a chaotic family dramedy about feuding matriarchs behaving badly at the beach.
Universal Language
Matthew Rankin’s second feature is a lovingly detailed, charmingly impossible story of a Canada where Persian and French are the two official languages, and loneliness is the common currency.
From Ground Zero
The combined work of 22 artists living in a besieged Gaza Strip. This omnibus film provides a contextualizing and critically important look beyond the brutal Livestream. Organized by the Mashawari Fund for films and filmmakers in Gaza.
Sudan, Remember Us
In spring 2019, filmmaker Hind Meddeb captures a jubilant moment of defiance among young Sudanese activists in Khartoum after the overthrow of a long dictatorship and then chronicles the military crackdown that followed.
Seed of the Sacred Fig
From renowned filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig (winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival) is a social drama turned cat-and-mouse thriller that will have you at the edge of your seat.
Perfumed With Mint
In this stirring elegy for a desolate Cairo from Emmy-winning cinematographer-turned-director Muhammed Hamdy, mint is sprouting from the bodies of a tormented generation of dreamers, attracting moving shadows that chase people through the streets.
Check out our other TIFF movie roundups for Animation and Sci-Fi & Fantasy.
Check out TIFF’s full list of North African and Middle Eastern lineups for showtimes and even more late-night scary stories.
