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Essential Middle Eastern Cinema

Close-up (1990)
Abbas Kiarostami · 111 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
The House Is Black (1962)
Forugh Farrokhzad · 35 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness," of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)
Abbas Kiarostami · 28 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Abbas Kiarostami · 21 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
A Separation (2011)
Asghar Farhadi · 19 critic votes
Streaming on Hulu
A 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.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan · 13 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
A group of men lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's location. As the group continues looking and the night begins dragging on, its members can't help but chat with each other about everyday life, as the conversations turn more and more serious, revealing their deeper secrets and profound stories.
Through the Olive Trees (1994)
Abbas Kiarostami · 11 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.
The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
Shadi Abdel Salam · 10 critic votes
Free on Public Domain Movies
An archaeologist unearths the mummy of an Egyptian queen. He doesn't realize that his daughter has a strong resemblance to the dead queen, and soon the mummy awakens. Complications ensue.
Cairo Station (1958)
Youssef Chahine · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.
Life, and Nothing More... (1992)
Abbas Kiarostami · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.
The Apple (1998)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Abbas Kiarostami · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish 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.
The Chess Game of the Wind (1976)
Mohammad Reza Aslani · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.
Divine Intervention (2002)
Elia Suleiman · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Chai Flicks
Santa Claus tries to outrun a gang of knife-wielding youth. It's one of several vignettes of Palestinian life in Israel - in a neighborhood in Nazareth and at Al-Ram checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Most of the stories are droll, some absurd, one is mythic and fanciful; few words are spoken. A man who goes through his mail methodically each morning has a heart attack. His son visits him in the hospital. The son regularly meets a woman at Al-Ram; they sit in a car, hands caressing. Once, she defies Israeli guards at the checkpoint; later, ninja-like, she takes on soldiers at a target range. A red balloon floats free overhead. Neighbors toss garbage over walls. Life goes on until it doesn't.
Hello Cinema (1995)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 5 critic votes
Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.
A Moment of Innocence (1996)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 5 critic votes
A semi-autobiographical account of an incident in Makhmalbaf's life when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
This Is Not a Film (2011)
Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi received a 6-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press due to his open support for the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election. In this film, which was shot secretly by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB stick concealed inside a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, Panahi documents his daily life under house arrest as he awaits a decision on his appeal.
Yol (1982)
Yılmaz Güney, Şerif Gören · 4 critic votes
When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.
The White Balloon (1994)
Jafar Panahi · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Several people try to take advantage of a little girl's innocence to hustle money her mom gave to her to buy a goldfish with.
The Circle (2000)
Jafar Panahi · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Metrograph
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
WALTZ WITH BASHIR (2008)
Ari Folman · 4 critic votes
An 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.
Still Life (1974)
Sohrab Shahid-Saless · 3 critic votes
A railway crossing guard and his wife live in a routine of total isolation and uneventfulness.
Alexandria Again and Forever (1990)
Youssef Chahine · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in "Alexandria, Why?" and "An Egyptian Story". Obsessed with Amr, the handsome actor he discovered and cast as his alter-ego in parts one and two of The Alexandria Trilogy, Yehia pressures Amr to star in various film projects that change even as Yehia's perception of the young actor begins to change. He first casts Amr as Hamlet, which the actor deems too demanding for his talents, then as the lead in a musical biopic of demigod Alexander the Great, who founded the city of Alexandria in 332 B.C.
Uzak (2002)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
A young man from rural Turkey arrives in Istanbul with dreams of working on a ship and stays with a cousin while he searches for work. Over time, the former’s struggles to find employment and the latter’s troubles and disappointments strain their relationship and living situation.
Crimson Gold (2003)
Jafar Panahi · 3 critic votes
Free on Cineverse · Streaming on Fandor, Kanopy, Hoopla
Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Bahman Ghobadi · 3 critic votes
Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
The Cow (1969)
Dariush Mehrjui · 2 critic votes
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
A Simple Event (1973)
Sohrab Shahid-Saless · 2 critic votes
The story of a ten years old Iranian schoolboy living with his mother and his father in Northern coasts of Iran. The boy helps his father in selling the latter's illegal fishing and helps his mother in shopping for her and bringing home water from a well. The three characters live together in only one room. Their life is austere. The boy eats only bread and milk every day... One day the boy's mother dies.
The Dupes (1973)
Tewfik Saleh · 2 critic votes
The film follows three Palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession and hope for a better future. Hiding in the tank of a truck, the men attempt to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the "promised land."
Beyrouth, ma ville (1982)
Jocelyne Saab · 2 critic votes
In 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. She then takes refuge in questioning: when did this all begin? How did the Beirut people live the siege? Each place will then become a story and each name a memory.
Diary 1973-1983 (1983)
David Perlov · 2 critic votes
A film diary in which Perlov films the minutiae of his and his family's day-to-day life. From these small bits, he builds up a broad picture of life in Israel in the '70s and '80s.
Utopia (1983)
Sohrab Shahid-Saless · 2 critic votes
A treatise on love and desire tainted by harsh reality of capitalism, in which submission to the laws of lust-as-commerce is played out by five prostitutes and their pimp, who pits them against one another so that they are incapable of standing up to him collectively.
The Razor's Edge (1985)
Jocelyne Saab · 2 critic votes
Samar, a child of the war, finds relief from the chaos around her through Egyptian movies she watches on television. Karim, an artist in retreat from life, remains in his apartment in war-torn West Beirut, confident that he is safe in his familiar neighborhood. An unlikely bond is formed between the two as they face the devastating civil war.
Stars in Broad Daylight (1988)
Ossama Mohammed · 2 critic votes
In his debut feature film, director Muhammad explores the inexorable dissolution of a family, ironically during the planning of a wedding, the kind of ritual that ought to bond family members together in shared joy. The film exposes the divisive dynamics of patriarchal oppression, and the terrible connections between familial and sociopolitical violence.
Gabbeh (1996)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 2 critic votes
An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.
Blackboards (2000)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 2 critic votes
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?
About Elly (2009)
Asghar Farhadi · 2 critic votes
Free on Cineverse · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Philo
The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
The Time That Remains (2009)
Elia Suleiman · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Philo
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day. A semi-biographic film, in four chapters, about a family spanning from 1948 until recent times. Combined with intimate memories of each member, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labelled "Israeli-Arabs," living as a minority in their own homeland.
Wadjda (2012)
Haifaa al-Mansour · 2 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Winter Sleep (2014)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
Aydın is a hotel owner and a retired actor in rural Turkey. As winter emerges he begins navigating the conflicts within the relationships with his wife, sister and existence.
Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (2015)
Abbas Fahdel · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
Chronicles of everyday life in Iraq before and after the U.S. invasion.
Three Faces (2018)
Jafar Panahi · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Kino Film Collection
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actor Behnaz Jafari travel to a tiny village after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbidden her from studying acting. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover that the local hospitality is rivaled by the desire to protect old traditions.
For Sama (2019)
Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts · 2 critic votes
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Most Dangerous Man in the World (1967)
Niazi Mostafa · 1 critic vote
Mister X is the head of an international smuggling ring in Chicago and arrives in Cairo to practice his activity. The police know about him and begin to watch him. The police exploit the great resemblance between X and the airport employee Zaki, so they exploit him in their mission, and the events follow in a comic form.
The Bread and Alley (1970)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
After returning from an errand to get bread, a young boy encounters a dog that frightens him making the journey to get home more difficult than he could’ve imagined.
Umut (1970)
Yılmaz Güney · 1 critic vote
After losing one of his horses in an accident, an illiterate horse cab driver sets out into the desert in a quest for a mythical lost treasure.
Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1975)
Omar Amiralay · 1 critic vote
The first documentary to present an unabashed critique of the impact of the Syrian government’s agricultural and land reforms, Everyday Life in a Syrian Village delivers a powerful jab at the state’s conceit of redressing social and economic inequities.
The Beehive (1975)
Fereydun Gole · 1 critic vote
Recently have been released from jail, Ebi makes a bet with his Friend that he goes and drinks in seven bars without even paying any money.
The Falconet (1975)
Farrokh Ghaffari · 1 critic vote
During an attack in a caravansary in which all the soldiers die, three people manage to flee. After that they accidentally encounter in different places and help each other out.
All Three, He Said (1979)
Gholamali Erfan · 1 critic vote
A young man is released from prison. Three other prisoners who where his cellmates explain his political and social life in three different ways: The first one defines him as the son of an unknown father and a Polish mother who were taken abroad when his mother has been killed at the time of WWII and then he has returned to Iran as the agent of Zionists arrested while he was spying. The second one defines him as the lover of a Polish woman who is the wife of an embassy employee and is arrested through a report by the husband. The third one tells that he has returned to the country to take his wife's jewelry and is arrested mistakenly.
First Case, Second Case (1979)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.
Letter From Beirut (1979)
Jocelyne Saab · 1 critic vote
Letter from Beirut documents the filmmaker's return to Beirut during one of the lulls, three years after the outbreak of the civil war, animated by the urge to return. She is confronted by the physical, emotional and psychological ravages of the war, terrified and sorrowful, she cannot find her place in the city. In that quest, she communicates with everyday people, friends, neighbors, people riding the bus across the city's eastern and western flanks. To pace her journeying and dramatic unraveling of the film, Saab borrows the guise of a letter read in a voice-over, written by world-renowned poet Etel Adnan. A rare document from the civil war, Letter from Beirut lays bare and spontaneously how people make sense of their everyday in the midst of chaos, violence, terror and sorrow.
An Egyptian Story (1982)
Youssef Chahine · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
After we last see him in "Alexandria, Why?" Egyptian filmmaker Yehia Mourad is in his thirties, and successful in his work, he has grown distant from his wife and children and suﬀers a symbolic blockage of the heart while shooting the final scenes of his latest film. After being flown to England for evaluation, it's determined that Yehia must undergo emergency surgery. Fact and fiction blend seamlessly—with healthy doses of cleverly absurdist fantasy—as the film explores the various personalities and forces that have made Yehia (and Youssef Chahine) the man he has become.
Sawak al-utubis (1982)
Atef El Tayeb · 1 critic vote
A father loses his carpentry workshop after his son-in-law stops paying taxes regularly. His son Hassan, a bus driver, struggles hard to save his father’s workshop, while the daughters try to replace it with a new project inspired by the “Infitah” era.
Leila and the Wolves (1984)
Heiny Srour · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, OVID
Drawing on the Arab heritage of oral tradition and mosaic pattern, Leila and the Wolves is an exploration of the collective memory of Arab women and their hidden role in history throughout the past half century both in Palestine and in Lebanon.
Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction (1984)
Michel Khleifi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
After the destruction of the Palestinian village of Ma’loul in 1948 and the forced displacement of its inhabitants, the site remains uninhabited. Each year, former residents are allowed to return for a single day, gathering among the ruins to share memories, recount the village’s past, and introduce younger generations to a place they cannot permanently inhabit, sustaining collective history through ritual return and testimony.
The Cyclist (1987)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf · 1 critic vote
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?
Homework (1989)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Young male students at a local Iranian school are asked about their feelings on homework.
Water, Wind, Dust (1989)
Amir Naderi · 1 critic vote
A young teenager returns home after an absence to find his village in Iran deserted because of an incredibly severe drought. He begins a search to find his family, traveling through an amazingly bleak and desolate landscape. Primarily an essay on the issue of humans vs. nature, the film is of interest for technical and cultural reasons.
SEGELL IKHTIFA (1996)
Elia Suleiman · 1 critic vote
Chronicle of a Disappearance unfolds in a series of seemingly unconnected cinematic tableaux, each of them focused on incidents or characters which seldom reappear later in the film. Among the many unrelated scenes, there is a Palestinian actress struggling to find an apartment in West Jerusalem, the owner of the Holy Land souvenir shop preparing merchandise for incoming Japanese tourists, a group of old women gossiping about their relatives, and an Israeli police van which screeches to a halt so several heavily armed soldiers can get off the car and urinate.
The Mirror (1997)
Jafar Panahi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
When a young girl's mother doesn't meet her after school, she tries to navigate the streets of Tehran by herself.
There Are Many Things One Can Talk About... (1997)
Omar Amiralay · 1 critic vote
The film was based on an interview with the late dramatist Saadallah Wannous a few months before he died of cancer. Wannous narrates his somber and relentless reflections – an adieu to a generation for whom the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the source of all disillusion. The playwright recounts, with some regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation
Hajji Washington (1998)
Ali Hatami · 1 critic vote
Hajji Hossein-Gholi Noori (Haji Baba) goes to Washington D.C. as the first Iranian (Persian) ambassador to the United States of America. After he opens the embassy, he is unable to invite statesmen to visit him. Haji fires the embassy staff due to the inability of the Persian government to meet the embassy's needs. One night he is visited by President Grover Cleveland.
Tango of Yearning (1998)
Mohamad Soueid · 1 critic vote
Tango of Yearning (1998) is the first episode of an autobiographical trilogy on postwar Lebanon, later including Nightfall (2000) and Civil War (2002). Taking its title from Tango of Hope, a classic ballad by Nur al-Huda, the film draws from the director’s reflections on war, love, and cinema, as well as his personal experience at the public television channel TéléLiban. Conjuring various snippets of audiovisual archival material, the film is a poetic elegy to film, Beirut’s movie theaters, and a city undergoing radical transformation. Mohamed Soueid has long been a proponent of the experimental video documentary movement in Lebanon, playing a significant role in the country’s creative renaissance since the end of the civil war. Originally trained as a news videographer during the war, the experience offered him a facility with the medium, which he further developed by making non-linear documentary films with a distinctly personal take.
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Bahman Ghobadi · 1 critic vote
After their father dies, a family of five children are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq.
The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Marzieh Meshkini · 1 critic vote
A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Rakhshan Bani-E'temad · 1 critic vote
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
Wadi Grand Canyon (2001)
Amos Gitai · 1 critic vote
Five (2003)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Finding himself in a house in the north of Iran by the Caspian Sea, the director picked up his handheld DV camera and began filming the seemingly anodyne events happening on the 500 metres of beach in front of his house—a piece of wood toyed with by the waves, people walking by the sea, indistinct shapes on a wintry beach or noisy ducks.
Avenge But One of My Two Eyes (2005)
Avi Mograbi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
Shot in the Occupied Territories by Israeli director Avi Mograbi, this controversial documentary film draws parallels between the Israeli - Palestinian situation today and the enduring myths of Samson and Masada. Mograbi offers a powerful, at times chilling, lament of the continuing cycles of violence rooted in the past and threatening to engulf everyone's future. With the roots of so much real-world conflict left unexamined by today's restless media, this film reminds us just how vital filmmakers like Avi Mograbi are. Documentary today is rarely immersed in questions of this magnitude - or tackles them with the level of eloquence shown here by Mograbi. An exceptional and challenging film.
The Lamentations Series: The Ninth Night and Day (2005)
Jalal Toufic · 1 critic vote
While the ten-day ceremony 'Âshûrâ' is a commemoration of the slaughter of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad and his relatives and companions at Karbalâ' in 680, it is also an invocation of the occulted Twelfth Imam, the Mahdî, in the hope of hurrying his exoteric earthly return. But how would the one invoked, who is (imaginally) present albeit occulted, perceive the ceremony? He would not perceive it the way we see it but in more temporal detail. While the first part of the video appears to be a documentation of the ceremony as it might be perceived by an all too human audience member, the second part of the video, which happens across a lapse of consciousness if not of being (indicated by the cut to black on the sound of the participants' hands striking their chests), and where time is dilated, implies that the essential spectator of the ceremony is the one to whom it is addressed, the Mahdî.
Climates (2006)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan · 1 critic vote
Man was made to be happy for simple reasons and unhappy for even simpler ones – just as he is born for simple reasons and dies for even simpler ones... Isa and Bahar are two lonely figures dragged through the ever-changing climate of their inner selves in pursuit of a happiness that no longer belongs to them.
Destiny (2006)
Zeki Demirkubuz · 1 critic vote
Bekir loves Uğur, who loves Zagor, who is about to get out of jail. An already tense love triangle is thrown into turmoil on a hot summer night, when Zagor kills someone, and Uğur disappears.
I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave (2006)
Hala Alabdalla, Amma Al-Beik · 1 critic vote
Interviews with three Syrian women who live in exile.
Supplying the Ruins (2006)
Oktay Ince · 1 critic vote
Portrait of Colonel Sabit, living alone in an abandoned house in Ankara. He has to move out when they come to demolish the building.
Times and Winds (2006)
Reha Erdem · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
In a small, poor village leaning over high rocky mountains, the villagers are simple and diligent people who struggle to cope with a harsh nature. They earn their living off the earth and a few animals they feed. Fathers always prefer one of their sons. Mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. Ömer, the son of the imam, wishes hopelessly for the death of his father. When he understands that wishful thinking does not have any concrete results, he begins to search for childish ways to kill his father. Yakup is in love with his teacher, and one day after seeing his father spying on the teacher he dreams too, like Ömer, of killing his father. Yıldız studies and tries to manage the household chores imposed by her mother. She learns with irritation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women.
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)
Hana Makhmalbaf · 1 critic vote
A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.
The Band's Visit (2007)
Eran Kolirin · 1 critic vote
A small Egyptian police band travels to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves stuck in the wrong town.
Shirin (2008)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MUBI Amazon Channel
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.
Poosteh (2009)
Mostafa Aleahmad · 1 critic vote
After 14 years in jail, Saeed is known to be irreproachable and set free.On his way home, he goes in a situation that can put him back on prison once again.
A World Not Ours (2012)
Mahdi Fleifel · 1 critic vote
Streaming on DocAlliance Films
An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.
Coming Forth by Day (2012)
Hala Lotfy · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Fawesome
One day in the life of Soad, who lives with her mother and bed-ridden father on the outskirts of Cairo.
The Return to Homs (2013)
Talal Derki · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
Filmed over 3 years in Homs, accompanying 2 outstanding young men from the time they were only dreaming of freedom to the time when they are forced to change course. Basset, the 19yo national football team goalkeeper, who became an outspoken demonstration leader in the city, then an icon revolution singer, till he becomes a fighter... a militia leader. Ossama, his 24yo friend, renowned citizen journalist, cynical pacifist... as his views are forced to change, until he is detained by army secret service. It is the story of a city, of which the world have heard a lot, but never really got closer than news, never really had the chance to experience how a war erupted. a modern times epic of youth in war time.
Taxi (2015)
Jafar Panahi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…
Hors Chant (2016)
Abou Naddara collective · 1 critic vote
In the Last Days of the City (2016)
Tamer El Said · 1 critic vote
Streaming on OVID
In the fading grandeur of downtown Cairo, Khalid, a 35-year-old filmmaker is struggling to make a film that captures the pulse of his city at a moment when all around him dreams as much as buildings are disintegrating. With the help of his friends who send him footage from their lives in Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, he finds the strength to keep going through the difficulty and beauty of living IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY.
24 Frames (2017)
Abbas Kiarostami · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A collection of 24 short four-and-a-half minutes films inspired by still images, including paintings and photographs. An experimental project made by filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in the last three years of his life.
Wajib (2017)
Annemarie Jacir · 1 critic vote
After years abroad in Italy, Shadi returns to his native Nazareth. But this is no spectacular homecoming. He's back somewhat begrudgingly to honour his "wajib" (or duty) to hand out invitations to his sister's wedding with his father. The simmering tension between the two — who are often stuck in a car, more often than not in traffic — builds, exposing the sometimes-comic chasms that exist between men who live in different worlds but share an unshakable bond.
Capernaum (2018)
Nadine Labaki · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
Towards the Sun (2019)
Nour Ouayda · 1 critic vote
You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.
letter to a friend (2019)
Emily Jacir · 1 critic vote
Emily Jacir writes to Forensic Architecture's Eyal Weizman about her family's street in Bethlehem, layering a century of its images and sounds after years of tear-gas attacks.
AN UNUSUAL SUMMER (2020)
Kamal Aljafari · 1 critic vote
Following an act of vandalism, the Palestinian filmmaker's father decides to install a surveillance camera to record the scenes unfolding in front of the house. Everyday family life, or neighbours going to work, Unusual Summer captures fleeting moments of poetry whereas, in the background, the daily choreography of Ramla, located in today's Israël, comes to the surface.
Radiograph of a Family (2020)
Firouzeh Khosrovani · 1 critic vote
"Mother married a photo of Father," says director Firouzeh Khosrovani in the opening of this deeply personal documentary. She's not speaking metaphorically though. Her mother Tayi literally married a portrait of Hossein in Teheran -he was in Switzerland studying radiology and was unable to travel back to his homeland for the wedding. The event illustrates the abyss that still exists in their marriage: Hossein is a secular progressive and Tayi a devout, traditional Muslim.
There Is No Evil (2020)
Mohammad Rasoulof · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Kino Film Collection
Set against the backdrop of Iran's strict and oppressive legal system, this anthology film tells the stories of four men who each face a moral crisis when having to deal with death penalties.
Blackberry Season (2021)
Hasim Aydemir · 1 critic vote
Back in his hometown after his university studies, Servan is witness to the burning down of his village and a series of other atrocities which eventually lead him to join the Kurdish resistance. In the ranks of the Kurdish liberation movement, he is seriously injured in clashes with the Turkish army. In order not to slow down his comrades and allow them to escape, Servan insists that he be left behind. Against all odds, he survives, enduring several days of acute pain. However, his friends cannot come back to pick him up, the area being surrounded by Turkish soldiers. As the soldiers approach, Servan decides to leave his hide away in spite of his serious injuries. He sets out to find his friends, overcoming countless obstacles in the forest, but nevertheless helped by Kurdish villagers throughout his journey. However, he is hunted down by death squads and village guards.
Hit the Road (2021)
Panah Panahi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
A chaotic family is on a road trip across a rugged landscape. In the back seat, Dad has a broken leg, Mom tries to laugh when she's not holding back tears, and the youngest keeps exploding into car karaoke. Only the older brother is quiet.
Burning Days (2022)
Emin Alper · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Metrograph
With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.
No Other Land (2024)
Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor · 1 critic vote
This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.
It Was Just an Accident (2025)
Jafar Panahi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Hulu, Kanopy
An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor.

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