
As I Open My Eyes
By Leyla Bouzid
2015 | 106 min | Drama
A dazzling coming-of-age film that interweaves a pivotal moment in Tunisian history with an 18-year-old's struggle for freedom.


By Leyla Bouzid
2015 | 106 min | Drama
A dazzling coming-of-age film that interweaves a pivotal moment in Tunisian history with an 18-year-old's struggle for freedom.

2017 | 70 min | Documentary
Panoptic ventures into the underground of Beirut to examine the schizophrenia of Lebanon: a nation striving for modernity while ironically ignoring the vices that prevent modernity. While the Lebanese population has chosen to turn a blind eye to these shortcomings, Rana Eid, an ordinary citizen, explores the paradoxes of her society through sounds, iconic monuments, and secret hideaways. “A harrowing, moving, and captivating debut.” (4:3 - Four Three Film)

2016 | 78 min | Documentary
The Kurdish Kurdwin grew up in Austria and takes a critical view of this visit "home". Filming, she tries to find out why her father is euphoric about Kurdistan. In 1991 Kurdwin Ayub fled Iraq with her family to Austria. Almost 25 years later she accompanies her father on a journey to his former home. While he contemplates a returning to live permanently in Iraq, Kurdwin and her cousins feel like strangers in their own homeland. An intimate, sometimes bizarre and sobering portrait of the generation ...

2019 | 58 min | Documentary
It represents an authentic counter-design to the forces in the Middle Eastern region. At its core are grassroots democratic self-governance, reorganization of the economy and supply in cooperatives, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious concepts, women's and justice centers. However, the democracy experiment not only had to stand up to IS, but still faces powerful enemies - Will Rojava have a future?

2014 | 75 min | Documentary
Both, as well as Fayad's mother, suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder. The film deals with the use of fear in Lebanese society in educating children, as well as the omnipresence of the (continuous) civil war. By following the director's efforts to reappraise his family history and deal with his fears and phobias and those of his dog, the film reveals a society that systematically adopts fear as an educational approach and produces generations that are forever preparing for war. "Ironically, ...

2023 | 79 min | Drama
Karo (28) is newly separated and struggling with the non-existent relationship with her father. When her mother Michaela (50) wants to go on vacation with her to the island of Rügen, Karo suspects another failed male story behind it. What starts as a spontaneous trip quickly turns out to be a journey into the past of two women who couldn't be more different: Michaela wants distraction, Karo wants peace. When they arrive at the hotel, they meet the newly divorced Jochen (60) and his teenage daughter ...

2011 | 91 min | Drama
In IF YOU DIE, I'LL KILL YOU, Kurdish-Iraqi director Hiner Saleem (MY SWEET PEPPER LAND), looks at the Kurdish community in Paris. Siba is played by Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson). Avdal dreams of staying in France and plans to bring his fiancée, Sibato, Paris. She’s due to arrive in the next few days. The two men strike up a friendship when unexpectedly, Avdal dies and Philippe has organize funeral arrangements for his friend. What should he do with the body?

2017 | 82 min | Drama
These three live precarious lives. Katja is a struggling actress. She gets by renting out apartments to tourists. Martina is a photographer who has no interest in her curator's flattery and prefers to scream her head off on stage with her punk band. Filmmaker Nola seeks to answer the question whether theory can still be translated into political practice today. In THE LONG SUMMER OF THEORY the women go on a search for meaning in an increasingly divided society. Especially Nola interviews sociologists, ...

2020 | 25 min | Drama
Leonid (Jonathan Berlin) is still mourning an old relationship. His friends, the couple Max (Rafael Gareisen) and Toni (Svenja Jung) are supportive, but he longs for a different kind of closeness. On a date he meets Leyli (Larissa Sirah Herden), who is older and more self-confident and they end up spending the night together. Leonid begins to explore his own definition of masculinity ... A modern reflection on love, sexuality and role models.

2021 | 73 min | Documentary
A thought-provoking gaze of the exploitative migration and the terrible dilemmas facing women who must choose between earning money and caring for their own children. The film drives the realities underlying the domestic work and care solutions found by Middle Eastern countries, such as Lebanon. These solutions do not address continuing gender inequalities, and all too often rest on the exploitation and even dehumanization of the women who actually provide the care of children and do all the domestic ...

2023 | 91 min | Documentary
Three women in Jordan live in isolation – not by choice, but out of fear of further violence. Their home is their refuge, but it is also a prison that separates them from the outside world. What does it mean to live a life in the shadows? How do you find strength in the midst of pain? Helin Çelik's documentary addresses a reality that often remains hidden. ANQA is an intimate exploration of the survival strategies of these women, whose stories are told not in words but in images. The camera focuses ...