Great movies from Middle East
Add short film Give It On Giving. https://www.shootonline.com/video/leo-burnett-dubai-hanzo-film-enbd-give-giving%C2%A0-charming-animated-short
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- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiAmir Farrokh HashemianBahare SeddiqiAfter a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
- DirectorTalal DerkiStarsAbdul Basset SarootA look behind the barricades of the besieged city of Homs, where for nineteen-year-old Basset and his ragtag group of comrades, the audacious hope of revolution is crumbling like the buildings around them.
- DirectorB.Z. GoldbergJustine ShapiroCarlos BoladoStarsMoishe Bar AmB.Z. GoldbergShlomo GreenSeveral Jewish and Palestinian children are followed for three years and put in touch with each other, in this alternative look at the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. The three filmmakers followed a group of seven local children between 1995 and 1998. They all have a totally different background. These seven children tell their own story about growing up in Jerusalem. Through this portrait of their generation, we see how deep rooted and almost insoluble the problems of the Middle East have become. When the protagonists speak out in an epilogue a couple of years later, it becomes apparent that all have lost their childlike innocence.
- DirectorEran RiklisStarsHiam AbbassRona Lipaz-MichaelAli SulimanThe story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
- DirectorYoav ShamirStarsYoav ShamirAbraham FoxmanBob WolfsonIntent on shaking up the ultimate 'sacred cow' for Jews, Israeli director Yoav Shamir embarks on a provocative - and at times irreverent - quest to answer the question, "What is anti-Semitism today?"
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsAdel KaramKamel El BashaCamille SalamehAfter an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
- DirectorGuy NattivErez TadmorStarsGuy EliayahooOoky EtingerDavid KadoshA short story of two strangers meeting in a train journey, not knowing that something stranger is coming their way.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsAri FolmanRon Ben-YishaiRonny DayagAn Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
- DirectorHaifaa Al-MansourStarsWaad MohammedReem AbdullahAbdullrahman Al GohaniAn enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
- DirectorVincent ParonnaudMarjane SatrapiStarsChiara MastroianniCatherine DeneuveGena RowlandsA precocious and outspoken Iranian girl grows up during the Islamic Revolution.OK, it's French, but I think that makes sense to include it.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsKhalid AbdallaAhmad Khan MahmoodzadaAtossa LeoniAfter spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHomayoun ErshadiAbdolhosein BagheriAfshin Khorshid BakhtiariAn Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsRobin WrightHarvey KeitelJon HammAn aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.An Israel-German-Poland-Luxembourg-Belgium-France-USA production. Fantastic animation work was created in Israel, which supervised animation studios in other countries.
- DirectorHakan YonatStarsBelçim BilginIbrahim CelikkolKerem CanA former boxer falls in love with a blind woman and starts to build a new life, but his dark past returns to endanger them both.It was filmed in Istambul and in Bulgaria, therefore, only in Europe. However, as it is Turkish, I included it in this list.
- DirectorMaya ZinshteinStarsEli CohenArcadi GaydamakAriel HarushOne season and one football team in crisis, as power, money and politics fuel a club spiralling out of control.
- DirectorMargarethe von TrottaStarsBarbara SukowaAxel MilbergJanet McTeerA look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for 'The New Yorker' on the trial of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.A production from Germany/Israel/Luxembourg/France.
- DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsTahar RahimAntonio BanderasMark StrongSet in the 1930s Arab states at the dawn of the oil boom, the story centers on a young Arab prince torn between allegiance to his conservative father and his modern, liberal father-in-law.Qatar is one of the countries responsible for this production, together with France, Italy and Tunisia.
- DirectorAmos GitaiStarsLiron LevoTomer RussoUri KlauznerWhen the Yom Kippur War breaks out, two Israeli soldiers find themselves unable to locate their unit. Eager to take part in the war effort, they join an airborne medical evacuation unit.
- DirectorAmos GitaiStarsAndrei KashkerHelena YaralovaMoni MoshonovIn May 1948, shortly before the creation of the State of Israel, hundreds of immigrants from across Europe arrive in Palestine--only to risk arrest by British troops.
- DirectorAdam SobelInside Qatar's labor camps, African and Asian migrant workers building the facilities of the 2022 World Cup compete in a football tournament of their own.The movie is from UK but it was fully filmed in Qatar.
- DirectorAmos GitaiStarsRosamund PikeDiana BespechniHanna Schygulla"Promised Land" tells the story of a group of young unwitting Estonian girls smuggled through Egypt to be auctioned off as prostitutes in Israel, and of their initiation into this trade of flesh, and finally of the accidental freeing of one girl who most fight for her freedom.
- CreatorOri ElonYehonatan IndurskyStarsDoval'e GlickmanMichael AloniNeta RiskinA Haredi family living in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem reckons with love, loss and the doldrums of daily life.
- DirectorJocelyne SaabStarsEmile AccarPierre ChamassianAbou El AbedTwo young girls of the war generation, Yasmin and Leila, are in search of Beirut. When they meet an elderly film enthusiast with a secret store of Lebanese films, they persuade him to screen his collection for them. So begins an initiation into the myths and images of Beirut, but the girls want cold figures and facts, war babies indifferent to the memories evoked.
- DirectorJocelyne SaabA documentary on the effects of the war on the Beirut, Lebanon community.
- DirectorJocelyne SaabIn July 1982, the Israeli army besieged Beirut. Four days earlier, Jocelyne Saab sees her house burn and 150 years of family existence go up in smoke.
- DirectorJocelyne SaabA few days after a massacre in a shantytown near Beirut, the director finds the children who survived.
- DirectorIda PanahandehStarsSareh BayatSahar AghiliPayam AhmadiniaA woman tries to mend the broken pieces of her last life, as she is now involved in a new relationship with a man.
- DirectorJosé JoffilyPedro RossiBrazil doesn't live under any declared war but many of its young men chose to fight abroad. The film will follow the lives of Brazilians that are engaged in other national armies or mercenary forces. What is there behind this motivation? The desire to "correct" the world; the will to participate in worldwide interest events; the crave for adventure? To understand the contradictions inherent to this choice is surely a difficult task, but is also a way of feeling contemporary Brazil.
- DirectorNadav LapidStarsTom MercierQuentin DolmaireLouise ChevillotteA young Israeli man absconds to Paris to flee his nationality, aided by his trusty Franco-Israeli dictionary.
- DirectorAi WeiweiStarsIsraa AbboudHiba AbedRami Abu SondosHuman Flow is director and artist Ai Weiwei's detailed and heartbreaking exploration into the global refugee crisis.
- DirectorShahrbanoo SadatStarsKaran Jeet SinghQodratEshanullah KharotiA 15-year-old ticket scalper in Kabul dreams of Bollywood until the Soviets force him into a state facility.
- DirectorMohamed Ben AttiaStarsMohamed DhrifMouna MejriZakaria Ben AyyedA Tunisian middle class couple with high hopes for the future of their only son discover he's left to join ISIS in Syria.