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Behind the Mountains
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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At once, Behind the Mountains is a father-son story, a hostage thriller and a supernatural dramedy - different genres lumped together without harmony. It’s a film that wants to be multiple things but ends up being none.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Backstage
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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This is a feast for the senses.Its subtle politics,however,is its strongest asset,exploring female sexuality and self-autonomy; gender fluidity and polyamory;and the schism between the free nature of art and the restrictive reality of Arab societies.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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The Sun Will Rise
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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As the movie progresses, the barrage of testimonies grows increasingly redundant, numbing the initial shock. The execution is too heavy-handed, self-important and attention seeking, so much so that it’s difficult not to question the method's intention.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Dormitory
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Yurt is a snapshot of a country in transition: a country divided between traditional secularism of the founding father of modern Turkey, Ataturk, and the rising power of religion, embodied by Erdogan, whose AK Party would win power a few years later.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Hesitation Wound
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Undeniably engaging, Hesitation Wound nonetheless treads familiar grounds, be it in its rudimentary treatment of class or in its depiction of the moral greyness that defines urban Turkish life.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Tatami
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Ebrahimi overlooks myriad fundamental ethical and philosophical questions, exposing in the process the timidity and one-dimensionality of the film’s exasperatingly limited discourse.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Hollywoodgate
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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More than an incisive investigation of Taliban rule, Hollywoodgate is a contemplative snapshot of the ashes left behind by an America that can no longer claim to be the leader of the free world.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Green Border
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Holland unearths a number of subjects few filmmakers have cared to tackle: the banality of the guards’ idle evil; the emotional vacuum the activists seek to fill with their work; and the moral cost of inaction experienced by the enlightened few.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Barbie
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Barbie is feminism 101, but for the global mainstream audience who have been served nothing but depoliticised superheroes for decades, the directness of Barbie's feminism is an essential step for reclaiming the soul of the Hollywood blockbuster.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Bye Bye Tiberias
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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This is a rich family saga about hope and lost and found; about undying family bonds unchanged by distance and personal ideologies; about the cruelty of borders and the tattered state of the Arab world, and about the resilience of the Palestinian soul.
Posted Nov 18, 2023
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Golda
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Because Golda cannot be too complex in order to attract a mass audience, the diverse reasons behind the conflict are overlooked as Nattiv roots the dispute in the Arab refusal to recognise Israel and their threats to wipe out the Zionist state.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Under the Sky of Damascus
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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The film is essentially a collection of straightforward testimonials grouped in dispiritingly artless fashion and the Syrian capital proves to be its biggest asset.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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The Burdened
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Gamal mostly frames his characters in wide shots, letting his camera linger on Aden’s cluttered exteriors after a stretch of dialogue ends, giving viewers the space to dwell on an ailing city on the brink.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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The Teachers’ Lounge
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Although the Turkish student is a periphery character, he is the catalyst of a multilayered and immensely tense drama mirroring a society that is befuddled and overly sensitive about its race and class issues.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Seven Winters in Tehran
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Intermingling interviews with Jabbari’s family members and former inmates with audio and video footage smuggled out of Iran, Niederzoll delivers a damning indictment of Iran’s patriarchal establishment.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Opponent
(2023)
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Joseph Fahim
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Opponent is foremost an astute study of a man who is nowhere near as resourceful as others expect him to be. The gay subtext adds an extra dimension to a gripping narrative that never descends into sensationalism.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Queens
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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A watchable picture that squanders the electrifying possibilities offered by its genre, Queens ultimately suffers from Benkiran’s reluctance to take chances and instead occupy a middle ground free of invention. This is a movie that never takes off.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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The Damned Don't Cry
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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The Damned Don't Cry is an intrepid exploration of the mystery that is the Arab mother-son bond. Selim and Fatima-Zahra have a co-dependent relationship typified by years of unshakable resentment and disappointment towards one another.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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Beyond the Wall
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Bafflingly thin on characterisation, the lack of sympathy for these awfully one-dimensional characters is augmented by Mohammadzadeh’s irritatingly one-noted self-important performance and Habibi’s lack of range.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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Without Her
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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When Roya’s eye surgery strikes her with cryptic blackouts, the film swiftly turns into a Brian De Palma-like pulp noir about the slipperiness of identity, suburban ennui and suppressed womanhood.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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World War III
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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World War III is, by turns, a character study, an examination of destructive class disjunction, a highly intense anecdote of scorching love, and a parody of commercial Iranian filmmaking.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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No Bears
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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With No Bears, Panahi reaches the point of self-reckoning, questioning the social validity of his work and confronting the limitations of art.
Posted Oct 06, 2022
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Our Ties
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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The problems of the family members - miscalculated choices, lack of consideration, self-centeredness - are of their own making: a privilege gifted by class ascension.
Posted Sep 23, 2022
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For My Country
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Nadia and her sons are lower-middle class immigrants who must ascend the class ladder to gain their full rights. In France, class does not just bring wealth and privilege, it’s the key for earning equality, crucial for becoming fully French.
Posted Sep 23, 2022
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Athena
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Athena is not about the awfully familiar narratives of a populace with unchanging conditions: it’s a visceral jolt aimed at the senses, an immersive experience set in an open prison with no escape.
Posted Sep 23, 2022
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Dirty Difficult Dangerous
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Dirty is a strange beast: a melodrama conceived as a deadpan comedy, peppered with social commentary. Despite the palpable passion on display, the film doesn’t succeed on any of those fronts
Posted Sep 06, 2022
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The Last Queen
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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The Last Queen attempts to give Algeria its lost myths in other words, but its didactic slant leaves no room for contemplation as the message drowns in the sturdy mechanisms of the plot.
Posted Sep 06, 2022
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Nezouh
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Nezouh is too unenterprising, too exasperatingly modest, to inject a new-found urgency to a subject that has been milked the past 11 years.
Posted Sep 06, 2022
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One Year, One Night
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Lacuestas intention of conveying the long-lasting trauma of his characters - which is predictably overdramatised and graceless - is carried out at a cost.
Posted Mar 01, 2022
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Until Tomorrow
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Asgari's Tehran is a decadent metropolis where freedom can only be attained by class privilege. Fereshteh has money, but she does not have the connections or resources that will allow her to live the way she wishes.
Posted Mar 01, 2022
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Shall I Compare You to a Summer's Day?
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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By extracting pop songs from their heteronormative heritage and casting them in a new queer light, Hassan has pulled out an act of resistance - an act of self-actualisation at the front and centre of a culture that continues to punish homosexuality.
Posted Mar 01, 2022
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Sonne
(2022)
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Joseph Fahim
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Avoiding cliches surrounding Middle Eastern youth in Europe, Sonne is a rich, multilayered study of teens torn between a confusing reality and an ill-defined virtual existence.
Posted Mar 01, 2022
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Black Medusa
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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An impressionistic revenge fable gorgeously shot in black and white, 'Black Medusa' is an angry shriek; a brazenly amoral meditation on violence and the righteousness of retribution, and a moody panorama of a lawless Tunisian capital.
Posted Jan 27, 2022
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Let It Be Morning
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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An intimate, delicate yet incisive multi-character comedic drama of classism, communal power dynamics, the broken dream of freedom, and the struggle for identity.
Posted Nov 07, 2021
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Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Little Palestine is, by turn, expansive yet intimate; harrowing yet hopeful; occasionally aloof yet intensely moving.
Posted Sep 26, 2021
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The Sea Ahead
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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An impressionistic, emotionally subdued portrait of an aimless generation traversing a dying city bound to disappear. The titular sea, which has been veiled by the unpopulated skyscrapers, becomes a symbol for this disappearing Beirut.
Posted Sep 26, 2021
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Costa Brava, Lebanon
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Akl keeps her viewers at arm's length from her characters, never penetrating their psyche. Costa Brava is a cold, affectionless film, too distracted with properly weaving its myriad disharmonious strands to deliver an emotionally engaging story.
Posted Sep 18, 2021
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You Resemble Me
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Amer's directorial ideology is alarmingly deterministic; she paints her characters as oppressed victims of a cannibalistic, white France hell-bent on denying its Arab women from any choices.
Posted Sep 18, 2021
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Zalava
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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With Massoud himself gradually questioning his unbending convictions, Amiri does not present a concrete or clear stance on the subject, depriving his treatise of the depth and complexity it thoroughly needs.
Posted Sep 18, 2021
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Land of Dreams
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Neshat squanders its promising fantastical premise over a storyline devoid of invention, insight or genuine intellectual curiosity. Its political immaturity is maddening; its gaudy visuals are exhausting; its glib humour is off-putting.
Posted Sep 11, 2021
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Amira
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Amira is a highly contrived, ridiculous melodrama seeping with endless implausible details that rob the story of any credibility it may have had. The biggest crime of the film though is its portrayal of Palestinian society.
Posted Sep 11, 2021
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Mr. Bachmann and His Class
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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All immigrant kids strive to transcend the socio-economic barriers and make better lives for themselves; all are struggling in figuring out what constitutes a home... and what a home means.
Posted Aug 18, 2021
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Ballad of a White Cow
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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A competent and undeniably engaging melodrama with superb acting and meticulous mise-en-scene, the well-trodden themes of guilt and retribution are nonetheless awfully familiar.
Posted Aug 18, 2021
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Death of a Virgin and the Sin of Not Living
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Barbari mistakes fatalism for realism, stuffing his film with cliched, melodramatic treatment of sex work and victimised women that go against the grain of his thematic intentions.
Posted Aug 18, 2021
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As I Want
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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As I Want is a film seeping with rage; at the self-entitled men who control the public spaces beyond reproach; at the educational and religious institutions; at the negligent political establishment that allowed this plague to mushroom.
Posted Aug 18, 2021
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Miguel's War
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Taking cues from Shirley Clarke's "Portrait of Jason" (1967), Raheb takes a no-holds barred approach, not flinching from asking tough questions while not compromising the dignity of her subject.
Posted Aug 18, 2021
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The Dissident
(2020)
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Joseph Fahim
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All the tackled political issues are dumbed down to fit a western binary of good and evil. The Arab Spring was great for the region but Saudi Arabia demolished it across the Middle East for fear it would encourage its own citizens to revolt.
Posted Aug 06, 2021
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Quo Vadis, Aida?
(2020)
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Joseph Fahim
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A deeply moving, remarkably articulate plea for recognition and for honoring those lives that were lost in vain; a reminder of how apathetic the international community and global organizations can be.
Posted Aug 06, 2021
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Kingdom of Silence
(2020)
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Joseph Fahim
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Kingdom of Silence pinpoints how such inherent cynicism defines America's toxic relationship with the world's biggest oil supplier (Riyadh would have calculated that Washington would be unlikely to retaliate against Khashoggi's death).
Posted Aug 06, 2021
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Memory Box
(2021)
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Joseph Fahim
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Few Arab filmmakers are able to craft scenes of such pure emotive power - wistful images imbued with the pain of displacement and loss.
Posted Aug 06, 2021
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