“Sofia” is the director’s debut feature film. It tells the story of a twenty-year-old girl who lives with her parents in Casablanca. In the middle of a family meal, her water breaks. The young woman has to hide her pregnancy and gives birth illegally at a hospital with the help of her cousin, in a country where sexual relations outside of marriage are prohibited by law. Sofia will have twenty-four hours to fill out the documents about the child’s father before alerting the authorities.

Cast: Maha Alemi, Lubna Azabal, Sarah Perles, Faouzi Bensaïdi.

Awards and festivals: Best Screenplay Award (Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, 2018); Special Mention (Carthage Film Festival, Tunisia, 2018); Lama Film Festival (France, 2018); Angoulême Film Festival (France, 2018)

About the director: Meryem Benm’Barek (1984) was born in Rabat and studied Arab Language and Civilizations in Paris, then continuing her studies at the Institut Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle in Brussels. Before making her first feature film “Sofia” (2018), she shot several short-subject films in which she already showed off her amazing talent. With “Sofia” she won the award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. She is currently writing the script for her second feature film, which is set in France and Morocco.

A procession of women in black walk to the village cemetery under the hot sun, carrying photos of their husbands, fathers and sons. The group is made up of women of many religions but they are all mourning in much the same way as a result of a disastrous, pointless war. United by friendship, their goal is to distract the village men, making them forget about their anger and resentment.

Cast: Claude Moussawbaa, Antoinette Noufaily, Nadine Labaki, Layla Hakim, Yvonne Maalouf.

Awards and festivals: Award for Best Film (Audience Award, Toronto Film Festival, 2011); nominated for Un Certain Regard (Cannes Film Festival, 2011) and Best European Film (Audience Award, San Sebastián Film Festival, 2011).

About the director: Nadine Labaki. Born in Lebanon, Labaki earned a degree in Audiovisual Arts at the University of Beirut (IESAV), where she directed her first film, “11 Rue Pasteur” (1997). It won the award for Best Short Film at the Arab Cinema Biennial given by the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris) in 1998. During her career, she has directed advertisements and music videos, as well. In 2004, she formed part of the Cinéfondation residency program at the Cannes Film Festival, where she finished her first feature film titled “Caramel” (Lebanon, 2007). It premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2007. Her second feature film, “Where Do We Go Now?”, was presented at Un Certain Regard in 2011. Her latest work, “Capernaum” (2018), received the Jury Prize in Cannes, as well as being nominated for the Golden Globes and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Labaki thus became the first woman from the Arab world ever to be nominated for that award.

Three Palestinian women with Israeli passports live in Tel Aviv, where they try to find some sort of balance between tradition and modern culture. Far from their places of origin, they are looking for love, but they find out that a relationship of their own choosing is not so easily attainable.

Cast: Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura, Mahmoud Shalaby, Henry Andrawes, Ahlam Canaan, Ayman Sohel Daw, Riyad Sliman.

Awards and festivals: NETPAC Award (Toronto International Film Festival, 2016); Sebastiane Award (San Sebastian International Film Festival, 2016); TVE Otra Mirada Award (San Sebastian International Film Festival, 2016); Youth Jury Award (San Sebastian International Film Festival, 2016).

About the director: Maysaloun Hamoud. Born in Budapest, she was born and raised in Dir-Hana, Israel, her family’s place of origin. She studied Middle Eastern History at the University of Jerusalem and Film at the Minshar Film School in Tel Aviv. In 2010, she took part in a collaborative filmmaking project with young Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers whose goal was to create a series of short-subject films together, all related with each other through the title of the project: “Coffee: Between Reality And Imagination” (Israel, Palestine, 2010). “Bar Bahar” (Israel, France, 2010) is her first feature film. She recently directed “Nafas” (Israel, Palestine, 2021), a comedy drama for television.

Three Egyptian women from different social classes decide to defend themselves against the sexual harassment they have to put up with every day when they leave their homes. One of them becomes a heroine by stabbing the men harassing her in the groin, causing a major uproar all over the country.

Cast: Bushra, Ahmed El Feshawy, Maged El Kedwany, Nahed El Sebai, Nelly Kareem.

Awards and Festivals: Best Actor and Best Actress Award (Dubai International Film Festival, 2010); Best Actor Award (Chicago Film Festival, 2011).

About the director: Mohamed Diab is one of Egypt’s youngest filmmakers and screenwriters. He was born in Ismailia, Egypt. He earned a degree in Business, but soon began to work at becoming a screenwriter. In 2005, during his stay at the New York Film Academy, he wrote several screenplays, including “El Gezira” [“The Island”] (Egypt, 2007), with which he represented his country at the Oscars in 2007. “Cairo 678” is his fifth film as a screenwriter and first as a director. It was released in his country one month before the Egyptian revolution, in which he was an activist.

In 1995, in Tizi Ouzou, Nabila Djahnine, president of the association Thirghri N’tmetout, was killed by an armed group. For years, Islamists had been forcing women to wear the hijab and give up their jobs, or to be killed if they refused. It was the first time that a feminist activist paid with her life. In 1994, Nabila wrote a letter to her sister Habiba, and “Letter to My Sister” is her reply.

Awards and festivals: Official section (Mostra de Cinema Àrab i Mediterrani, 2006).

About the director: Habiba Djahnine. An Algerian writer, producer, filmmaker and activist born in Tizi Ouzou, since 2003, she has been the curator of several festivals, including Rencontres Cinématographiques in Béjaïa, where she was responsible for the “Bejaia Doc” workshop specializing in the creation of documentaries. She took part as a curator in the Arab Shorts program for Germany’s Goethe Institut in 2011. Her films include four documentaries, "Lettre à ma sœur" (Letter to My Sister, 2006); "Autrement citoyens" (Otherwise Citizens, 2008); "Retour à la montagne" (Returning to the Mountains, 2010) and "Avant de franchir la ligne d’horizon" (Before Passing the Horizon Line, 2011). In 2012, she received the Prince Claus Award for her work as an Algerian filmmaker.