9/8/2025–|Last update: 23:57 (Mecca time)
The tragedies of war, humanitarian crises and issues of identity for identity formed an inspiration for a number of Arab filmmakers in their participating works in the 78th session of the Locarno Film Festival, which takes place between 6 and 16 August.
This session is witnessing a prominent presence of Arab cinema through posts from Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Tunisia, distributed in multiple sections and competitions within the festival program.
Pre -war visual and human journey
The documentary “With Hassan in Gaza” by Palestinian director Kamal Al -Jaafari inaugurated the activities of the international competition at the Locarno Festival, providing a personal and historical narration based on 3 videos found by the director before the war in the Gaza Strip erup
The documentary is accompanied by a wild journey that Al -Jaafari is in the company of a local guide named Hassan, during which they move from the north of the Strip to the south along the coast, in search of Abdul Rahim, a young man who was known by the director in the late eighties of the last century when they were serving a penalty in the Israeli desert prison as teenagers in the “juvenile” section.
During his later study of cinema in Germany, Al -Jaafari continued to hope to meet Abdul Rahim again to complete a film project documenting their joint experience in prison during adolescence.
The film includes snapshots of daily life in Gaza, in which scenes of children appear on the beach, the movement of movement in movement, the crowded cafes of the pioneers, and the active neighborhoods, which are pictures that today acquire a completely different meaning in light of the widespread destruction that the sector has witnessed since October 2023.
Al -Jaafari described his work as a greeting to Gaza and its people, and to everything that remains vibrant in this critical moment of Palestinian history, in statements made in conjunction with the film’s presentation in the festival.
The pain is transmitted from Palestine to Lebanon through the documentary “The Tales of the Earth Wounded” by Iraqi director Abbas Fadel, the Lebanese producer Nour Balouk, and the participant in the official competition.
The film reviews the suffering of the Lebanese under the war, inspired by the troubled Lebanese reality, humanitarian scenes that document pain and steadfastness, an extension of a trilogy that the duo started in 2022 with the movie “Tales of the Violet House” that monitored the repercussions of the war in southern Lebanon, and the details of the struggle for life.
Gilgamesh with a modern vision
The Arab participation in this year’s version of the Locarno Festival through the movie “Erkala – Dream Gilgamesh” by Iraqi director Mohamed Al -Daraji, which is shown in the “Grand Square” section in the “Bazza Grande” square.
Al -Daraji re -provides the Gilgamesh epic in a contemporary frame, through the story of a 8 -year -old homeless child, who has diabetes, seeks to persuade his close friend to accompany him to the lower “ACACALA” world, to escape a turbulent reality on an existential symbolic journey that reflects the features of the original legend.
Within the official competition, Tunisian director Abdel Latif Kashish presents his movie “Maktoub Habibi” (Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due), which began to promote recently, and is scheduled to be shown on the fourth day of the festival.
The film is the third and final part of a series inspired by the novel “The True Wound” by writer Franceu Begodoa, through which it continues to explore the depths of the human psyche through Amin’s journey, who returns to his town to meet his family and family.
Director Mahdi Hamili participates in his movie “Agraba” in the “Furi Cardsu” program, which is devoted to works that are shown outside the official competition, and focuses on experimenting and unconventional narrative methods.
The events of the film are taking place inside a huge steel factory in Tunisia, where 4 workers face psychological and physical imbalances under the severe work conditions, and they are pursued by the impact of the loss of their colleague, who is killed in a tragic accident inside the factory, which pushes his colleagues to go into a journey to search for justice.
In the section “Espected Voices in Independent Cinema”, the Sudanese film “Helli” by Yasser Fayez, to join the Arab films shown within the activities of the festival and interested in monitoring the life details faced by the Arab person in light of the congestive conditions.
