Arab Movies Making Their Debut at the Venice Film Festival in 2025
The Venice Film Festival, one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals, is set to open later this month for its 82nd year. This year's event, running from August 28 until September 7, promises to showcase a diverse range of films from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a focus on urgent, poetic, and deeply personal narratives.
Paolo Sorrentino's film La Grazia will open the festival, while Cedric Jimenez's Dog 51 will close it. Among the MENA films to be showcased is Hijra by Saudi filmmaker Shahad Ameen, a poetic road movie about the bond between generations of Saudi women as they journey across the desert. The film meditates on loss, belonging, and generational ties.
Hijra continues Ameen's exploration of questions of female autonomy, social restriction, and personal change, themes also found in her previous film, Scales, which premiered at Venice Critics' Week in 2019. Another notable MENA film is Cotton Queen by Sudanese director Suzannah Mirghani, which explores a tense social power struggle in a Sudanese cotton-farming village, highlighting emerging cinematic voices from the region.
The theme of generational connections, identity, loss, and human rights is further explored in films like The Voice of Hind Rajab by Palestinian-British filmmaker Said Zagha. Based on the real case of a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in early 2024, the film delves into the personal and political implications of such tragedies.
Swiss filmmaker Nicolas Wadimoff's documentary Who is Still Alive presents testimonies from Palestinians living under prolonged occupation and siege in Gaza. The film adopts an observational storytelling approach, allowing subjects to speak for themselves. Meanwhile, Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab will be shown at the festival, offering a poignant exploration of the same theme.
My Father and Qaddafi, a Libyan documentary by Jihan K, focuses on a personal and political investigation of the filmmaker's father's disappearance against the backdrop of Libya’s turbulent history, entwining memory, identity, and human rights struggles.
The MENA region's urgent and poetic pulse is also reflected in films like Coyotes by Palestinian-British filmmaker Said Zagha. The title refers to those who facilitate illegal crossings, often at great personal cost. Calle Malaga, directed by Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, follows a Moroccan domestic worker living abroad while financially supporting her family back home in the Spanish port city of the same name.
Alexander Payne is the jury president of the Venice Film Festival, overseeing the selection of the best films in competition. With its focus on the diverse and complex voices of the MENA region, the festival's MENA film selections this year promise to engage audiences with poetic lenses on personal and political stories that resonate with themes of identity, memory, belonging, and social change.
- The news about the Venice Film Festival's focus on MENA region films, notably 'Hijra' by Shahad Ameen, highlights an exploration of female autonomy, social restriction, and personal change.
- Alexander Payne, as the jury president, will oversee the selection of the best films in competition, including those from the MENA region which carry themes of identity, memory, belonging, and social change.
- 'My Father and Qaddafi', a Libyan documentary by Jihan K, delves into a personal and political investigation of the filmmaker's father's disappearance amid Libya’s turbulent history, intertwining memory, identity, and human rights struggles.
- 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' by Palestinian-British filmmaker Said Zagha, based on a real case, investigates the personal and political implications of a tragedy involving a six-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza.
- The theme of social power struggle is explored in 'Cotton Queen' by Sudanese director Suzannah Mirghani, set in a Sudanese cotton-farming village.
- 'Coyotes', a film by Palestinian-British filmmaker Said Zagha, sheds light on those who facilitate illegal crossings, often at great personal cost, reflecting the urgent pulse of the MENA region.
