san diego
arab film festival
welcome to the 13th annual
san diego arab film festival!
April 12-21, 2024
Days Hours Minutes Seconds
Tickets are on sale now, with individual screenings at $15 (discounted to $12 for students), 3-ticket packages for $40 and passes for all 8 screenings for $80. Arabic dinners will be available each evening for $15.
click here to view festival schedule
Buy Tickets
Online ticket sales close the morning of the event.
Tickets will be available at the door until sold out.
The San Diego Arab Film Festival is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Stephanie Jennings, friend, comrade and activist.
lineup AND SCHEDULE
The San Diego Arab Film Festival is back for 2024 with live, in-person presentations of feature length and short films at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The festival will open on Friday, April 12, and present 8 screenings, each showcasing one feature film and one short film, from across the Arab World. Each evening, the festival will also offer cafeteria-style Arabic dinner.
We are excited to bring these films to the San Diego community!
This event has passed.
Friday, April 12, 7:20 PM
I AM FROM PALESTINE
By Iman Zawahry
As Saamidah, a young Palestinian-American girl, anxiously starts her first day of school, she finds her identity in question when faced with a world map that does not include her homeland of Palestine. In this poignant, short animation, Iman Zawahry…
A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM
By Muayad Alayan
Following the death of her mother in a car accident, ten-year-old Rebecca moves with her father Michael from the UK to Jerusalem in search of a fresh start. There, they take up residence in a villa left to Michael by his father, in a neighborhood of West…
Online ticket sales for this event have closed, but tickets will continue to be on sale at the door.
Saturday, April 13, 6:10 PM
A CALLING . FROM THE DESERT . TO THE SEA
By Murad Abu Eisheh
Fearing that her younger sister will be married off just like she was, Ahlam lures Yasmin to run away with her by telling a story of a mythical sea that lies beyond the desolate desert and its mountains. In search of this sea, the two sisters journey far from…
MACHTAT
By Sonia Ben Slama
A trio of female wedding singers find freedom in their art in this evolving Tunisian documentary. In a small Tunisian town, filmmaker Director Sonia Ben Slama chronicles the daily lives of Fatma and her daughters Najeh and Waffeh, “Machtat,” or…
Online ticket sale for this event have closed, but tickets will continue to be on sale at the door.
Saturday, April 13, 8:25 PM
THAT SEVEN DAYS
By Ehsan Shademani
A Palestinian couple living in Gaza is preparing for their wedding when an event changes their life story. After this incident, the Palestinian bride is reviewing her memories of the joys and sorrows of the 7 days leading up to the…
AIDA RETURNS
By Carol Mansour
Aida Returns 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…
Friday, April 19, 7:20 PM
THE TIME WE MEET
By Liyan Kaawach
A man enjoys his morning tea in his home, located in the Palestinian village of Meiroun. He is then interrupted by a taciturn stranger taking pictures of his home. Despite the man’s multiple attempts to converse with the stranger, the latter maintains…
FEZ SUMMER ’55
By Abdelhaï Laraki
Summer 1955. Kamal, an 11 year old boy of the Medina of Fez, is experiencing the last months before Morocco’s independence. In contact to Aïcha and her fellow students of the Qaraouiyine university, he discovers and takes part in the fight…
Saturday, April 20, 6:00 PM
M’DINA
By Jan Hamshoro
“M’dina” is an experimental documentary that captures everyday scenery through the lens of a foreigner in the old city in Tunisia. Life in this mystic place though it might seem exotic is a narrative as old as time: humans with their hopes and dreams…
DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO
By Cyril Aris
On August 4th, 2020, the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut leaves a large part of the Lebanese capital in ruins. In the midst of the chaos, a troubled film crew faces an overwhelming decision: to continue the production of their movie or abandon…
Saturday, April 20, 8:15 PM
PHONE BREAKER
By Hamza Atifi
To avenge his mother and rid his living space of invading telephones, Jalil, a washed-up employee, becomes the “Phone Breaker” and leads a ruthless vendetta against the telecommunications industry.
THE BURDENED
By Amr Gamal
Based on true events that take place in Aden around 2019, the film follows the struggles of a married couple and their three children after both husband and wife lose their jobs as a result of the country’s economic crisis. After the mother…
Sunday, April 21, 5:30 PM
FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS
By Mohamad W. Ali
In the Syrian War, a woman lost her husband and tries to hide the truth from her tongue-tied (mute) child by acting the father role, facing life alone trying to protect her family.
DOUNIA AND THE PRINCESS OF ALEPPO
By Marya Zarif, André Kadi
An animated film that merges reality and magic, the film tells the story of Dounia, a 6 year old who lives in Aleppo, a thousand-year-old legendary city in the heart of the world. But one day, war breaks out. So she leaves Aleppo with a few nigella seeds in her…
Sunday, April 21, 7:35 PM
MAR MAMA
By Majdi El Omari
With her mother’s death and recurring attacks by Israeli forces on her city, a young girl becomes obsessed with death. Her father makes a film to distract her but he fails and the girl finds nothing but imagination to escape from reality.
LYD
By Rami Younis, Sarah Friedland
This feature-length, sci-fi documentary shares multiple pasts, presents, and futures of the city of Lyd in Palestine. Lyd was once a thriving Palestinian city with a rich history. In 636AD, it was even considered the first capital of Palestine. In 1948, hundreds of Lyd’s Palestinian residents were massacred by…
Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
Support Us
KARAMA’s vision is to grow the San Diego Arab Film Festival into a major cultural event that enhances the identity, perception and understanding of the Arab and the Arab world. Doing so will require time, energy and money. You can help in multiple ways…
Highlights
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