Mideast: Middle Eastern Films Stack Up At Cannes

cannes

Five films from Arab directors will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is the 78th annual Festival de Cannes. For many years, Cannes has held the crown for prestige in indie and arthouse film. Notable winners of the elusive Palme d’Or in recent years include Anora, Anatomy of a Fall, and Parasite. 

Arab filmmakers have won the elusive Palme d’Or only three times, and twice for short films. But they have been competing fiercely since the competition’s beginning. Egyptian director Mohamed Karim’s Dunia was the only Arabic film at the first Cannes Festival in 1946. 

Arab filmmakers competed less often in the first few decades of the festival. They did not return to Cannes until 1956, and an Arab filmmaker won his first Grand Prix in 1975. Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, who won Best First Work in 1967, making the Algerian the first Arab prizewinner, submitted Chronicle of the Years of Fire and won the Palme d’Or in ‘75. 

The other two top prizes for Arab filmmakers went to Maroun Baghdadi in 1991 for his short film Out of Life and Ely Dagher’s short film Waves ‘98 in 2015. In the twenty-first century, the nominations for Middle Eastern filmmakers have come fast and furious. 

Beyond just the ethnically Arab world, filmmakers from Arabic-speaking Africa and the Muslim Middle East have contributed greatly to the depth of the festival. 

When discussing the Arab film industry, one nation is the most prolific: Egypt. Cairo, sometimes referred to as Hollywood on the Nile, is responsible for three-quarters of Arabic-speaking movies and television. The Egyptian film industry is so strong that the Egyptian dialect is frequently considered the most neutral dialect across Arabic-speaking nations because so many people have grown up exposed to it through on-screen media. 

This year's Cannes submissions reflect Egypt’s strength. Two of the five films are directed by Egyptians and take place in Cairo.

Two of the other films are by Tunisian filmmakers. Tunisia is a growing voice in the industry, with several prominent submissions in the last decade. Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, a moving story and genre-bending documentary about a Tunisian family during the Arab Spring, came within striking distance of the Palme d’Or in 2023.

The fifth submission comes from Palestinian twin-brother-director-duo Arab and Tarzan Nasser. Palestine is on everyone’s minds this year as war continues to rage on in Gaza and Israel continues its merciless campaign against Hamas, the militant group in control of the Gaza Strip. However, their film is no didactic lament of the occupation nor a political drama centering a faithful activist; it is a story of amateur drug-dealers in a falafel restaurant and takes the form of a traditional Western. The film takes place in 2007 when Hamas is solidifying its rule over the enclave.

Aside from the brothers’ unexpectedly apolitical film, there is a different film with a focus on the current plight of Gazans from Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi. Titled Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, the documentary covers correspondence between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi in Iran and France, and Gazan photojournalist Fatma Hasson (sometimes Fatima Hassoun or Fatem). 

On April 16, Farsi broke the news to Hasson that their documentary was going to be shown at Cannes the next month. Hasson was elated, and they began making plans to get Hasson from Gaza to France for the screening. Hasson was OK with that as long as she could return to Gaza afterwards. She had no intention of fleeing her home.

On April 17, she posted a picture of a sunset to her Instagram feed captioned, “This is the first sunset in a long time.” She was engaged and her wedding was in a few days.

Hours later, an Israeli airstrike killed her and ten of her family members. Fatma Hasson was twenty-five.

In an interview with Democracy Now! the next day, Farsi’s voice broke continually as she shakily shared the legacy of her partner, the documentarian, and grieved her killing. Several days earlier, Hasson had posted the following online:

As for the inevitable death, if I die, I want a loud death, I don't want me in a breaking news story, nor in a number with a group, I want a death that is heard by the world, a trace that lasts forever, and immortal images that neither time nor place can bury.

Cannes will ensure this wish is fulfilled.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that at least 178 journalists have been killed in Gaza. 

In a moment of global tumult, violence, and uncertainty, art provides clarity, escape, relief, and catharsis. The Cannes Festival began in 1946, one year after France’s occupation and decimation in WWII. It has stood as a symbol of internationalism, cooperation, and creativity ever since. 

Similarly to the Palestinian brothers’ Once Upon A Time In Gaza, many of the Arabic submissions place their narratives in environments or among characters reflective of the real-life Middle East. However, they reach beyond traditional doom-and-gloom stories of war or occupation and reach into complex lives containing both despair and joy. 

La Petite Derniere by Tunisian director Hafsia Herzi explores a young woman’s experience navigating the clash between her religious family upbringing and her independence as a philosophy student in Paris. La Petite Dernière is nominated for a Palme d’Or. 

Promised Sky, also directed by a Tunisian woman, Erige Sehiri, also follows an immigrant story. In this film, it is not Tunisians in France, it is Ivorians in Tunisia. Migrants from West Africa overwhelmingly move to North Africa as opposed to Europe. Sehiri’s story about a journalist and pastor aiding other vulnerable women in Tunisia is nominated for Un Certain Regard.

Egyptian director Morad Mostafa is up for both Un Certain Regard and Camera d’Or for his film, which also centers Black African migrant communities in North Africa. In Aisha Can’t Fly Away, he explores Black immigrants’ lives through the eyes of Aisha, a Somali caregiver.

The other nomination from Egypt is Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic, which is aiming for a Palme d’Or. It is the third movie in a trilogy of which the previous installments won awards at both Sundance and Cannes. The finale centers on a famous actor who is coerced into making a propaganda film for the state.

Those of us unfortunately outside of France must wait for local festivals or online releases to see the new movies. While neither films nor Cannes can end violence or restore those lost to it, they offer the grieving a mirror for their deepest pain and reflection. Filmmakers have a unique opportunity to share these most intimate parts of themselves with the world.

This article is dedicated to Fatma Hasson, a Palestinian woman who spent the last year of her life documenting the war in Gaza as a photojournalist.