Spotlight: Middle Eastern Filmmakers
The Middle East is a vibrant and diverse region with rich cultures and unique voices. Film Fest Report is proud to support the rise of a strong, authentic, and distinctive independent cinema from the Middle East.
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TIFF 2026: Djinn Wedding (dir. Ferit Karahan) | Review
Gritty, fresh, and atmospherically offbeat. Ferit Karahan conducts a peculiar study of angels and demons within humans through surrealistic mazes.…
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Venice 2026: No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman (dir. Halkawt Mustafa) | Review
Kurdish Wonder Woman with a sniper makes a dazzling entry to Venice that brings women warfighters’ dignity and resilience to…
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Locarno 2026: Revolutionaries Never Die | Interview with Mohanad Yaqubi
"Looking at [Jocelyne Saab's archives] from today creates a temporal anomaly that brings the two timelines together somewhere beneath the…
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Cannes 2026 (Critics’ Week): Nafron (dir. Daood Alabdulaa) | Review
The emotional landscapes of "Nafron" compose a visual poem of the day after the tragedy, in which Daood Alabdulaa kindles…
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Cannes 2026 (Critics’ Week): The Station (dir. Sara Ishaq) | Review
In a Yemen ravaged by cycles of violence, "The Station" is a brilliant, generous, and gripping film that celebrates sisterhood…
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Visions du Réel 2026: For Life (dir. Ahmet Seven) | Review
Ahmet Seven delivers a gripping and deeply moving film about an overwhelming will to live, set in a land where…
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Berlinale 2026: Cesarean Weekend (dir. Mohammad Shirvani) | Review
Mohammad Shirvani’s "Caesarean Weekend" is a politically charged, formally experimental portrait of generational tension in contemporary Iran that, despite its…
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Berlinale 2026: The Other Side of the Sun (dir. Tawfik Sabouni) | Review
Tawfik Sabouni’s "The Other Side of the Sun" is a devastating, unsensational yet profoundly necessary documentary, as former Sednaya prisoners…
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Berlinale 2026: Chronicles From the Siege (dir. Abdallah Alkhatib) | Review
Abdallah Alkhatib’s "Chronicles From The Siege" offers a poignant, vignette-driven meditation on the endurance and fragmentation of Palestinian life under…
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Berlinale 2026: Roya (dir. Mahnaz Mohammadi) | Review
Premiering in Berlinale’s Panorama section as both a clandestine production and a defiant political gesture, Mahnaz Mohammadi’s "Roya" is a…
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