Whenever I walk through the dark reddish hallways to reach my apartment, whenever I would look out of my windows and dive into that expended view of the city of Brussels, unusual feelings would emerge. Until the day I read an article about my building PACIFIC, entitled "the suicide tower”.

Pacific

Delve into the inhabitants of a building in Brussels "Pacific", dubbed "the suicide tower”.

In the peak of summer, a carwash languishes. More than a job, the carwash has become a surrogate family to the small group of men. When Hakim returns to work after serving time, what was supposed to be a long awaited reunion between the workers quickly spirals into chaos.

Foam (Écume)

In the peak of summer, a carwash languishes.

A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief. Using footage from the Lebanese film “In the Battlefields,” as well as “Candy” and “The 100,” and audio from archival recorded Lebanese funeral laments, the video looks at how men and women express grief and anger under the patriarchy, as well as how trauma and childhood experiences can evolve into mental illness and patterns of behaviour as adults. “Clench My Fists” is part of a larger body of work dealing with racial identity and the concept of “inherited grief;” that through biological or behavioural means, trauma is passed down through prospective family generations so that family members might experience the residual effects of trauma they did not personally witness. This body of work explores how the death of the artist’s grandfather, an Arab American, caused ripples of mental illness and skewed racial identity through her paternal family. Using filmic material that the artist used to connect with her heritage, “Clench My Fists” is part of a series of work focusing on not only decolonizing Imperialist Western understandings of the Middle East but to also show the beauty of the artist’s heritage, outside the context of her family.

Clench Your Fists

A found-footage collage video that explores the process of growing up in an Arab family deeply affected by death and grief.

In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night’s darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

The Girls Who Burned The Night

In an engagement night, a denied request to go to the grocery shop pushes two sisters to their edge.

And The Night Will Carry Us

Ayman, Syrian refugee in Lebanon, teaching his wife how to drive his car, the only thing left for him from his country. The lesson takes a wrong turn into madness and nostalgia.

Aziza

A dynamic take on the life of Syrian refugees, told through black comedy.

A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

One Of Us Left The Photo

A Syrian refugee lives in France with his French woman. His twin brother, pro the Syrian regime, arrives unexpectedly from Syria and lives with them in the same house.

Shorts Film Collection - Available Globally (Virtual Screening)

Shorts Film Collection (Available Globally)

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TAFF is the first festival of its kind in Toronto, focused on presenting and promoting pan-Arab films by Arab filmmakers from all over the world. The 2nd annual Toronto Arab Film Festival will take place May 27-30, 2021. 

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