Arab Films at TIFF 2024

From September 6th to the 15th, the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival will be taking place, and a great batch of cinema from the Arab world will be premiering! TIFF is one of the most important film events of the year, and we’re looking forward to highlighting the work of the Arab filmmakers who have had their work chosen for the festival! Although no Arab films are playing in the Gala or Special Presentations, there’s plenty of titles to look out for in various categories – so let’s dive into the Arab Films at TIFF 2024.

Psst: don’t forget to also check out our post about Arab Films at the Venice Film Festival 2024

All film descriptions and stills courtesy of TIFF.

Arab Films at TIFF 2024: Centerpiece

Front Row by Merzak Allouache
Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France – World Premiere

Summertime! The Bouderbalas arrive early at the beach to be seated close to the water, in the front row, and enjoy a leisurely day. But nothing will happen as planned.

Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti
Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar – North American Premiere

Four interconnected characters share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations, and cultures. Rami, a Palestinian from Haifa, is dealing with his Jewish girlfriend’s sudden change of heart about her planned abortion. His mother, Hanan, is facing a financial crisis and becomes entangled in complications while seeking compensation for her daughter’s Fifi accident. Miri is forced to confront her daughter’s depression while also working to undermine her sister’s pregnancy with Rami. Fifi grapples with the guilt of hiding a secret that risks her family’s reputation and her burgeoning relationship with Dr. Walid.

To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel
Palestine – North American Premiere

Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.

Arab Films at TIFF: DOCS

From Ground Zero by Various Directors
Palestine, France, Qatar, Jordan – North American Premiere

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.

Living Together by Halima Elkhatabi
Canada – World Premiere

In a series of captivating encounters, several young people try to find the ideal roommate, that rare gem with whom they can share their space—and their values. A complex and engaging picture of a generation accustomed to playing all their identity cards, Living Together maps a mosaic of cultures and ideas, with explorations of community, individualism and the right to housing in constant interplay.

No Other Land by Various Directors
Palestine, Norway – Canadian Premiere

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.

Sudan, remember us by Hind Meddeb
France, Tunisia, Qatar – North American Premiere

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.

Wavelengths

Image of Diary of a Sky playing in exhibition at Turin’s Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in 2023

The Diary of a Sky by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Wavelengths 1: Eye & Ear Control Programme – Lebanon

By turns graceful and incensed, The Diary of a Sky artist — and self-described “private ear” — Lawrence Abu Hamdan employs collaboratively sourced smartphone videos and his typically lucid analysis to examine the sonic terrorism routinely effectuated over the citizens of Lebanon.

Drama 1882 by Wael Shawky
Egypt – North American Premiere

In a working-class neighbourhood of Cairo, 30-year-old Hassan faces eviction with his mother and his dog, Rambo, as their landlord, Karem, a car mechanic, plans to expand his workshop. When Hassan’s mother decides to sue Karem, he responds with hostility, leading to an attack on Hassan. Unable to defend himself, Hassan is rescued by Rambo, who bites Karem in a sensitive spot in a public display. Determined to restore his dignity, Karem intensifies his harassment, prompting Hassan to embark on a challenging journey across the city to find a safe haven for Rambo. Through this quest, Hassan confronts his deepest fears and rediscovers himself.

Perfumed With Mint by Muhammed Hamdy
Egypt, France, Tunisia, Qatar – North American Premiere

Bahaa, a lovesick physician and his old friend Mahdy try to escape the ghosts of their past, running from one abandoned house to another as they are chased relentlessly by shadows.

Short Cuts

The fo

Never Have I Ever by Joyce A. Nashawati
Strange Cuts – France

From its first disorienting moments to its shocking conclusion, Joyce A. Nashawati’s film is a brilliantly conceived and absolutely unrelenting experiment in terror.

Fantas by Halima Elkhatabi
Programme 01 – Canada

Worlds and genres collide one summer afternoon as a young woman and her horse make a surprising and eventful odyssey in this richly cinematic drama by Montreal’s Halima Elkhatabi (also at the Festival with the TIFF Docs selection Living Together).

Who Loves the Sun by Arshia Shakiba
Programme 03 – Canada

Enriched by cinematography as remarkable as the filmmaker’s work on Zaynê Akyol’s Rojek, this documentary by director Arshia Shakiba situates viewers amid the oil refineries in Syria’s war-ravaged north, a landscape that may seem post-apocalyptic but lives in our ever-more alarming present.

Arab Films at TIFF 2024

Aïda Neither by Elisa Gilmour
Programme 05 – France

Returning home to Corsica to see her brother and grieve a recent loss, a woman considers the consequences of her choices, in this uncommonly graceful short by Elisa Gilmour.

Before They Joined Us by Arshile Khanjian Egoyan
Programme 06 – Canada

Outside dangers and family fears cause tensions to rise for a young woman leaving wartime Lebanon for Montreal, in Arshile Egoyan’s terse and affecting drama.

And that’s the lineup of Arab films at TIFF 2024, playing in Toronto this week. We’ll be updating our social media if any of them win major awards, so keep an eye out, and wait to see if any of them end up at the Arab Film Festival in October.