Film-Forward

Middle East

Rosewater

Directed by Jon Stewart Produced by Scott Rudin, Jon Stewart, and Gigi Pritzker Written by Jon Stewart, based on the book Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari Released by Open Road USA. 103 min. Rated R With Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Halah Bilginer, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Golshifteh Farahani, Dimitri Leonidas, Claire Foy Jon […]

Point and Shoot

Edited, Written, and Directed and edited by Marshall Curry Produced by Curry, Mr. Matthew VanDyke and Elizabeth Martin Released by the Orchard USA. 82 min. Not rated Most of us have moments when we are not comfortable in our own skin and not sure of who we are. Most of us might switch jobs or […]

The Green Prince

Written and Directed by Nadav Schirman, based on the memoir Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef Produced by Schirman, John Battsek and Simon Chinn Released by Music Box Films Germany/Israel/UK. 101 min. Rated PG-13 This summer’s front page photographs from Gaza of masked Hamas gunmen executing accused collaborators with Israel gives The Green Prince […]

May in the Summer

Written and Directed by Cherien Dabis Produced by Dabis, Alix Madigan-Yorkin and Christopher Tricarico Released by Cohen Media Group Jordan/Qatar/USA. 99 min. Rated R English and Arabic with English subtitles With Dabis, Alia Shawkat, Nadine Malouf, Ritu Singh Pande, Hiam Abbass, Alexander Siddig, Elie Mitri, and Bill Pullman May in the Summer centers on a […]

Fifi Howls From Happiness

Directed by Mitra Farahani Produced by Marjaneh Moghimi Released by Music Box Films Farsi with English subtitles USA/Iran/France. 97 min. Not rated Some people make living an art form. This portrait of the artist as an old man follows Bahman Mohassess, an exiled Iranian painter and sculptor, as he attempts to live (and die) according […]

Closed Curtain

Directed by Jafar Panahi and Kambozia Partovi Edited, Written, and Produced by Panahi Released by Variance Films Farsi with English subtitles Iran. 106 min. Not Rated With Kambozia Partovi, Maryam Moghadam, Hadi Saeedi, and Panahi Closed Curtain starts out looking like an allegory in some future post-apocalyptic society. But the repression in Iran today emphatically […]

Dancing in Jaffa

Directed by Hilla Medalia Produced by Diane Nabatoff, Neta Zwebner-Zaibert, and Hilla Medalia Written by Philip Shane and Medalia Released by Sundance Selects English, Hebrew, and Arabic with English subtitles USA. 88 min. Not rated In 1994, four-time ballroom dancing world champion Pierre Dulaine and his dance partner, Yvonne Marceau, started an educational program called […]

Omar

Directed and Written by Hany Abu-Assad Produced by Abu-Assad, Waleed F. Zuaiter & David Gerson Released by Adopt Films Palestine. 98 min. Not Rated Arabic & Hebrew with English subtitles With Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany, Waleed F. Zuaiter, Samer Bisharat, & Eyad Hourani Omar spins a fresh take on thrillers and star-crossed romances set along […]

BFI London Film Festival 2014

Claire Stewart’s second year at the London Film Festival helm set sail with the European premiere of Paul Greengrass’s Captain Philips and ended with the world premiere of John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks, both beamed simultaneously by satellite to 30 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland. At the closing press conference, Tom […]