The Dream
1987 | 45 min | Documentary
This poignant and thought-provoking documentary offers a unique and deeply moving insight into the lives of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Mohammad Malas
DirectorMohammad Malas is a Syrian film director known for his poetic and introspective style. He gained recognition for his films such as "Dreams of the City," "The Night," and "Ladder to Damascus." Malas has received awards at various international film festivals for his work, showcasing his talent in storytelling and visual aesthetics. His films often explore themes of memory, history, and the human experience, making him a prominent figure in Arab cinema.
Films
Dreams of the City
1984 | 123 min | Drama
A poignant tale of lost innocence, young Dib navigates the tumultuous landscape of 1950s Damascus following his father's death.
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Dreams of the City
1984 | 123 min | Drama
Dib moves with his younger brother and their mother from his home town of Quneitra to Damascus after the death of his father. The children’s grandfather, who was known for his tyranny, reluctantly agrees to shelter the grieving family, and tries to force his daughter to marry again. The magic of the city of Damascus takes over the conscience. Dib, whose main concern has become discovering all the secrets of this city, is driven by his heart full of dreams, but he sees nothing in his life except humiliation ...
Café Waldluft
2015 | 79 min | Documentary
CAFÉ WALDLUFT is not what it used to be. Once a tourist hot spot nestling in the picturesque mountains of Bavaria, it now offers shelter to refugees from all across the globe. For each one of them it carries the hope of a new beginning, the aspiration of a new home – waiting somewhere behind a multitude of obstacles. So what does it take for them to arrive for good? What does it really take for a place to become home? With only a few remaining guests in their late sixties, they brainstorm together ...
Just a Friday
2022 | 26 min | Drama
After a harrowing escape from the front line, 15-year-old Hans Jokisch and his family return to their village in Silesia. But their beloved home is occupied - by the Schöppe family. They have no choice but to share the house from now on. Over time, the Jokisch house also becomes a home for the Schöppe family and Hans befriends the young Bruno Schöppe. But when Germany surrenders in 1945 and Silesia now belongs to Poland, both families suddenly are forced to flee the house and leave all their possessions ...
Amal
2014 | 55 min | Documentary
Memories of the war influence their everyday life. Especially the violent death of their three-year-old daughter Amal (Arabic: hope) keeps the parents stuck in the past. She died during an attack when a shell hit the family home. Their two sons were seriously injured. Ghadir and Mohamad then came to Germany to have the injured children treated here. Then they want to go back. Arriving in Germany is easier for the children than for their parents. They are slowly getting used to their new home - each ...
Gate #5
2011 | 84 min | Documentary
Through eloquent descriptions of former truck drivers, El Habre presents The Lebanon of the 1960s to the present day. They were once young, thrived on adventure and had choices. In the 1960s and 70s thousands of young Lebanese men left their villages and made a new life in Beirut. Truck driving became a lifestyle, income, money, and a vibrant urban life.
Counting Tiles
2018 | 86 min | Documentary
Camp Moria, Lesbos. Cynthia Choucair's documentary follows 'Clowns without Borders' to find out more about the current refugee experience and the extremely precarious situation of children in times of flight and displacement. Cynthia Choucair was herself a refugee child during the Lebanese civil war. With this experience and inspired by the current crisis, her sister decided to become a professional clown and volunteer with 'Clowns Without Borders', an NGO that works with refugee children. Choucair ...
Zertifikat Deutsch
2009 | 90 min | Documentary
Among other regulations, this law requires non-European immigrants pass a difficult language test (Zertifikat Deutsch) to get citizenship or an extension of their residency permits. Karin Jurschick's film documents one of these so-called integration courses at an adult education center in Cologne. Here language students from China, Somalia, Afghanistan, Marocco and the Dominican Republic try to learn German. (Note: the coursecertificate is now called "Zertifikat Integrationskurs" which encompasses ...
Birds of September
2013 | 99 min | Documentary
People are invited to share a personal moment. It is a thoughtful portrait of some of the city's inhabitants as they sit at the back of the van and express their innermost thoughts. Sarah Francis' documentary BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER is her debut film and was screened at CPH: DOX and the Art of the Real New York. "A portrait of a city and the people who live there, which amazingly enough manages to unite a number of otherwise highly different genres into a unified whole. An original and accomplished ...
The Return of the Aramean People
2012 | 62 min | Documentary
"Tur Abdin" is what Aramaic Christians call their homeland in southeast Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. One of the earliest Christian settlements in the world, very few live there today. Most Aramaic Christians have fled war, violence and repression. Some even fled to Germany. Now, exiled Arameans from Göppingen want to return to southeastern Turkey to safeguard their cultural heritage and rebuild their destroyed villages. Director Anja Reiß accompanies them back home. "Migration is a constantly ...
Kommen und Gehen
2017 | 57 min | Documentary
In autumn 2015, a long-established hotel in Halle closed its doors to guests and was converted into a refugee shelter. In this documentary, filmmaker Uwe Mann observes the last days of the hotel, the dismissal of the staff, the departure of the last hotel guests and the arrival of the new residents. For the staff, the closing came as a surprise, as it did for Uwe Mann, who had already retraced the history of the hotel in his previous film "Im Dreieck". Two weeks before the hotel was to close, the ...