Play Bundle

Creativity and movement is at the heart of the play bundle with a focus on artists and dancers. These films capture bodies lost in movement and the creative process.

Demarcations; you have black eyes (cheshmeh siya dari) dir. by Zelikha Zohra Shoja
USA | Farsi | 9 min
Drawing from a song by Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir, “you have black eyes” is a stream-of-consciousness montage depicting collective bodies in a constant state of disruption, movement, processing, and grieving. It celebrates the body as a historical, domestic site of resistance through dance and movement including found footage of ants carrying flowers, rubab player Ustad Beltoon interrupted, and Hazara throat singing across an imaginary landscape.

Three Tales of Halaqat dir. by Sophie Soukias
Belgium | Arabic, Darija, French, Dutch & English | 25 min
In 2021 and 2022, the Goethe Institut and Bozar invited musicians, directors and performers from the Arab world and its diaspora to Brussels as part of their ’Halaqat’ program. Sophie Soukias captured their coming in three short films of unfettered imagination, constantly pushing the boundaries of reality.

In Cycle dir. by Elham Hajahmadi
Iran | Farsi | 27 min
This short documentary is the story of four creative Iranian female artists who have been creating art works from recycled materials. It has been compiled according to the current conditions of Iran in a difficult situation. This narrative is completed with a layer of the delicate speech to reflect the point of view of its filmmaker. A layer that manifests the self-recovery and trying to rebuild a better life.

Bellydance Vogue dir. by Hadi Moussally
France/Spain/Lebanon | Arabic (Lebanese) | 5 min
Hadi’s birthday landed on the 3rd of April, 2020, during lockdown, and for the first time he celebrated it all by himself.

In the whiteness dir. by Niya Ahmed Abdullahi
Canada | Harari & English | 5 min
in the whiteness is a poetic exploration of identity through the eyes of a Harari woman, displaced via war, now living in Canada. She uses poetry and movement as a meditative method of reconnecting with her roots and in doing so, establishes a magical bond with her ancestors.

Les chenilles dir. by Michelle Keserwany and Noel Keserwany
France/Lebanon | Arabic | 30 min
Asma and Sarah, two women originally from the Levant, find themselves working in the same restaurant in the city of Lyon in France.