Tickets are on sale now, including individual screenings at $15 (discounted to $10 for students), 3-ticket packages for $40 and passes for all 8 screenings for $80. Arabic dinners (including vegetarian option) will be available each evening for $15. Click here to purchase
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.
The San Diego Arab Film Festival is back for 2023 with live, in-person presentations of feature length and short films at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The festival will open on Friday, March 3, 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!
In a Palestinian town, Tamer and his friends lead a typical high school student’s life until the arrival of the beautiful Maysaa’. To please her, Tamer agrees to take part in a mysterious flag operation .......
Friday, March 3, 7:30 PM
In Sudan near the Merowe Dam, Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to build a mysterious construction made of mud....
Saturday, March 4, 6:15 PM
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut....
Saturday, March 4, 8:30 PM
SARA is a single mother and novelist, shocked into silence, at a time of extreme sectarian violence and nightly curfews in Baghdad. She and her neighbours let us into their everyday lives, as they struggle to resist the ....
Friday, March 10, 7:30 PM
In the shade of trees, a strong bond flourishes between the young summer harvest workers. Between flirting, feelings of attraction and denial, a deep connection develops between the young men and women as they ...
Saturday, March 11, 6:00 PM
From Aleppo to the Ghetto. Jacir follows the life of a young Syrian refugee on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee as he faces the hard truth in chasing the American dream, while living in poverty, witnessing social injustice......
Saturday, March 11, 8:30 PM
It is the mid-1990s. In a small town in the north of Morocco, Fouad is the only employee of the local post office. When he is stricken from neurological disease, his life changes, and a new life begins .....
Sunday, March 12, 5:30 PM
Mediterranean Fever: In this wry, absurdist tale of mid-life restlessness, husband and father Waleed dreams of becoming a successful novelist yet is plagued by a severe case of writer’s block. ...
Sunday, March 12 7:45 PM
Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
Tickets are on sale now, including individual screenings at $15 (discounted to $10 for students), 3-ticket packages for $40 and passes for all 8 screenings for $80. Arabic dinners (including vegetarian option) will be available each evening for $15. Click here to purchase
Online ticket sales close the morning of the event.
Tickets will be available at the door until sold out.
This year the Festival offers short films from across the Arab world representing a range of styles and genres. The final line up includes films that have been screened at Cannes as well as other international festivals. They include Hibernate and From the Mountain from Syria, Merge from Saudi Arabia, Ashes (Cendres) fromTunisia, Bouchaib from Morocco, Warsha from Lebanon, Hamza: Chasing the Ghost Chasing Me. from Palestine and Virtual Voice from Sudan and Qatar.
With the help of a young Tunisian guide, a retired French soldier sets out into the desert on a quest for redemption.
Friday, March 3, 7:30 PM
A poor Syrian kid with a great love for music sees a young woman playing accordion so he starts chasing her to get into a music institution where he can make his dream of being an accordion player comes true.
Saturday, March 4, 6:15 PM
Bouchaib, a Moroccan child who joined the French school after a passage to the Koranic school, will live the experience of identity alienation which will not even spare his name.
Saturday, March 4, 8:30 PM
After recovering from an illness, middle-aged Hamza resumes a practice he began when he was released from an Israeli prison 20 years ago. Every day, he goes into the woods to hunt the lion that the locals don’t believe exists.
Friday, March 10, 7:30 PM
Warsha follows Mohammad, a Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to take on one of the tallest and notoriously most dangerous cranes in Lebanon. Away from everyone’s eyes, he is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.
Saturday, March 11, 6:00 PM
Historical narrative film about the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 and its leader Sultan Basha Al Atrash’s quest for justice against French colonial oppression.
Saturday, March 11, 8:30 PM
This is a satirical review of our times. Suzi doll is an ego-warrior. An online avatar, marching to the algorithms of social media, she is lit by temporary outrage, a trending indignation, a passion that is fashion, a politics of the popular. Her activism is abstract, her help is hypothetical.
Sunday, March 12, 5:30 PM
In a time where Saudi society is undergoing drastic changes, Ahmad, early 30s, sees the reflection of these in the company where he works when male ad female departments are merged.
Sunday, March 12, 7:45 PM
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…
Interview by Beth Accomando / Arts & Culture Reporter.
Listen to Larry Christian and Maha Gebara talk about the 12th Annual Arab Film Festival which kicks off Friday night with in-person screenings and themed food at MOPA.
When Netflix announced its release of Farha, it was greeted with a coordinated campaign to downvote its ratings online and a social media campaign calling on people to cancel their subscriptions to Netflix.
2022-2023 is the eighth year that the San Diego Arab Film Festival is receiving support from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. This recognition and support represents an important milestone f
For all inquires, please fill out the form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. We’ll be happy to answer all of your questions.
In this short film, set in 1956, 8 year old Nabil navigates through new social norms he cannot fathom that impact his next door best friend in post nationalized Egypt. Inspired by true events.
A comedic ode to Tunisia’s youth, TUNIS-DJERBA presents the story of Alyssa, a rebellious 19 year-old girl, and her friend Mehdi – a shy and introverted 23-year-old young man – who use their imagination to escape their unpromising reality. When they discover a contest in the south of Tunisia that may allow them to flee for real, they decide to undertake the road trip regardless of the obstacles in their way.