The Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) is pleased to announce the full program for the 2024 Arab Film Festival, running October 24 – November 3, 2024 with a hybrid program of in-person and virtual events.

The festival offers special programming to local audiences, and unprecedented access to the diversity and range of authentic Arab experiences. It has gained an international reputation for excellence and offers its audiences access to media that reflects the lives of under-represented and provocative themes and groups on a cultural and societal level.

The festival runs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area at the Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco), AMC Kabuki 8 (San Francisco), Roxie Theater (San Francisco), Artists’ Television Access (San Francisco) and the New Parkway Theater (Oakland).  The program spans 11 days, presenting over 40 films from 26 countries, 16 directed by women. AFF2024 includes filmmaker mixers, classic films, industry and community panels, filmmaker talkbacks and workshops. Select programs will also be simultaneously presented online.

“Organizing this year’s Arab Film Festival has been both incredibly challenging and important to us. Challenging because we all feel our hearts breaking every day by the ongoing violence; and important because now more than ever our stories must be told,” says Serge Bakalian, AFMI’s Executive Director.  “Mainstream representation of Arab lives continues to dehumanize our communities at home and abroad. From the very beginning, the Arab Film Festival has been the counter force to such dehumanization, amplifying the voices of our storytellers. The 28th Arab Film Festival will showcase not only the struggles but also the resilience, culture, and dreams of our communities. In times like these, it is vital to share these narratives, to foster understanding and remind the world of the beauty and complexity that exists beyond the conflicts.”

AFF2024 opens at the Palace of Fine Arts with Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza, the award-winning documentary by Mohamed Jabaly.

OPENING NIGHT: Life Is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza
Thursday, October 24 – 7:00 PM – Palace of Fine Arts
Directed by Mohamed Jabaly, Norway/Palestine, 2023, 93 mins
When young Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed leaves for his first trip to Europe, he has no idea that his 1-month stay in Tromsø, Norway, will turn into forced exile with no end in sight. It’s 2014. The only access route to his native Gaza is closed indefinitely. As a Palestinian, Mohamed is stateless in the eyes of the Norwegian authorities. His right to stay legally in the country is thwarted, since despite his talent and experience he has no formal film training. He decides to document the cold northern days filled with waiting for the border to open and the authorities’ decision, while his entire life in Gaza is reduced to video chats via an impersonal screen. The warm support of Mohamed’s new community in Norway is interspersed with reports of new attacks on Gaza. How does one cope with feelings of helplessness, fatigue, and constant homesickness when one’s destiny is not in one’s own hands?

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Additional Palestinian Programming @ AFF
From Ground Zero – Palestine’s Submission to the 97th Academy Awards
Wednesday, October 30 – 7:30 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Ahmed Al Danaf, Ahmed Hassouna, Alaa Damo, Alaa Ayoub, Aws Al Banna, Bashar Al Balbisi, Basel Al Maqousi, Etimmad Wishah, Hana Eleiwa, Islam Al-Zarei, Khamis Masharawi, Karim Satoum, Muhammad Al Sharif, Mustafa Al Nabih, Mustafa Kulab, Nida’a Abu Hasna, Nidal Damo, Rabab Khamis, Rima Mahmoud, Thaer Abu Zubaida, Tamer Nijim & Wissam Moussa, Palestine, 2024, 115 mins
From Ground Zero is a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, the project was born to give a voice to Gazan filmmakers to tell the untold stories of the current war on film.

To a Land Unknown
Sunday, October 27 – 5:10 PM – Roxie Theater
Directed by Mahdi Fleifel, Greece/Palestine, 2024, 90 mins
Palestinian refugees 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.

Aida Returns
Sunday, November 2 – 1:00 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Carol Mansour, Lebanon/Palestine/Canada, 2023, 77 mins
This film is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more.

Palestinian Voices (shorts program)
Friday, October 25 – 5:10 PM – AMC Kabuki
In contrast to Western media coverage that often dominates the narrative, this program highlights the stories of Palestinians as they want to tell them. Each film offers us glimpses into the daily lives of the Palestinian people–their struggles under occupation, but also their hopes, dreams, and insistent reclamation of life, despite it all. We are honored to share these shorts that explore childhood imagination, the efforts to return, and the solidarity that can be found in surprising places.
A Short Film about Kids (Palestine) dir. Ibrahim Handal
Where the Wind Blows (Palestine, United States) dir. Hana Elias
Palestine Islands (Palestine, Jordan) dir. Nour Ben Salem & Julien Menanteau
Sokrania 59 (Palestine, Syria, Algeria, France) dir. Abdallah Alkhatib

Lebanese Programming @ AFF
Arzé
Friday, October 25 – 5:40 PM – AMC Kabuki
Directed by Mira Shaib, Lebanon, 2024, 93 mins
Arzé, a struggling single mother in Beirut, supports her agoraphobic sister and teenage son, Kinan, by selling homemade pies. Desperate to expand, she steals her sister’s bracelet to buy a delivery scooter, but when it’s stolen, Arzé and Kinan race through Beirut’s sectarian neighborhoods to retrieve it, facing a ticking clock and mounting pressure.

Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano
Friday, November 1 – 6:30 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Cyril Aris, Lebanon/Germany, 2023, 87 mins
In the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion from August 4th 2020 in Beirut, a film crew is facing a serious dilemma: should they defy the chaos and move forward with the shooting of their film or surrender to the multiple crises that are spreading all over the country? Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano captures their relentless battle to keep making cinema in a shattered city.

We Never Left – World Premiere
Sunday, October 27 – 2:40 PM – Roxie Theater
Directed by Loulwa Khoury, Lebanon/United States, 2024, 83 mins
Portraying a heart-wrenching duality between life in Beirut and in New York, We Never Left is a tortured love story of a displaced people – an impassioned testament to Lebanese expats’ unrequited yet irrepressible love for their homeland after the start of the Lebanese revolution.

Queer Programming @ AFF
Layla
Saturday, October 26 – 7:35 PM – AMC Kabuki
Directed by Amrou Al-Kadhi, United Kingdom, 2024, 100 mins
Layla is a struggling Arab drag queen whose confident façade hides their desperate desire for love. When their performance at a belittling corporate Pride event turns into a transgressive takedown, they are surprised to catch the eye of marketing executive Max, whose attentions sweep Layla off their feet. The two start an intoxicating romance, but as Layla starts to alter who they are in order to keep Max’s interest, they both have to face uncomfortable truths.

Queer Lens: The Ties That Binds (shorts program)
Tuesday, October 29 – 6:00 PM – Google’s Community Space
This year’s Queer Lens program highlights the importance of relationships and community building for young LGBTQ+ Arabs. Featuring a diverse set of award-winning shorts from the Levant, North Africa, and the diaspora, each of these films contend with what it means to find yourself through forming connections with others. The filmmakers explore how Queer Arab youth seek out one another across space and time: by connecting across countries, finding solace in older generations, or through exploring hidden queer narratives in Arab history. Despite the obstacles of social stigma, physical distance, and historical distortion, Queer Arabs remain steadfast in their efforts to establish a community of acceptance and understanding with and for each other.
Shame (France, Spain) dir. Hadi Moussally
Neo Nahda (United Kingdom, Lebanon) dir. May Ziade
I Never Promised You a Jasmine Garden (Canada) dir. Teyama Alkamli
Maghreb’s Hope (Algeria, Brazil, Morocco, Tunisia) dir. Bassem Ben Brahim
Never Stop Shouting (Morocco, France) dir. Abdellah Taïa

North American & United States Premieres
Backstage – North American Premiere
Saturday, November 2 – 2:50 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Afef Ben Mahmoud & Khalil Benkirane, Morocco, 2023, 101 mins
Aida, member of the contemporary dance troupe ‘Without Borders’ touring Morocco, provokes during a representation in a small Middle Atlas town, her life and stage partner Hedi, who injures her onstage triggering a series of events through a long night across a forest, on the way to the next village’s doctor.

Tell Them About Us – North American Premiere
Sunday, November 3 – 3:05 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Rand Beiruty, Germany, 2024, 92 mins
A clique of Arab, Kurdish and Roma teenage girls navigate their way into womanhood in the German province. Seeking ways to overcome disguised discrimination and familial pressures, the girls stage their conflicts and wildest dreams in front of the camera.

Front Row – U.S. Premiere
Saturday, October 26 – 12:30 PM – AMC Kabuki
Directed by Merzak Allouache, Algeria, 2024, 96 mins
Two feuding matriarchs engage in chaos and dysfunction during a family beach vacation in prolific Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s chaotic family dramedy.

Back to Alexandria – U.S. Premiere
Saturday, October 26 – 2:35 PM – AMC Kabuki
Directed by Tamer Ruggli, Switzerland/Egypt, 2023, 90 mins
After twenty years of absence, Sue returns to her native Egypt to see her estranged mother, Fairouz, a splendid and eccentric aristocrat. Leading her on a surprising journey from Cairo back to Alexandria, Sue reconnects with her loved ones and faces startling and painful memories. She will reconcile with her past, and finally become the empowered woman she ought to be.

Zinet, Algiers, Happiness – United States Premiere
Friday, November 1 – 5:00 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Mohammed Latrèche, Algiera/France, 2023, 57 mins
Who remembers Mohamed Zinet? For the cinephiles, he is only the actor who embodied “the Arab” in the French films of the 1970’s, for filmmakers such as Yves Boisset or Claude Lelouch. In Algeria, he is another person… Child of the Casbah, he is the brilliant director of “Tahia ya didou”.

Closing Night – Focus on Sudan
Goodbye Julia
Sunday, November 3 – 7:15 PM – The New Parkway Theater
Directed by Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan, 2023, 120 mins
Just before the secession of South Sudan, a married former singer from the north seeks redemption for causing the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife as her maid.