Films, films everywhere! Here’s our round-up of what’s screening at BFI London Film Festival 2024 this October.
THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US (2024)
Laila Abbas’ gripping tale of two sisters racing against time to assure their inheritance is an inspiring story of unity against unfair patriarchal systems.
Mahdi Fleifel’s first fiction feature is a combination of buddy drama and tense thriller.
Skilfully utilising magic realism and horror tropes, Meryam Joobeur conjures-up a dreamlike world to pose very real questions in her first feature.
ISRAEL PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 (2024)
A striking history of how Scandinavians received news about the Middle East, from the director of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.
The only survivor of a bus crash, Aya escapes her life and flees to Tunis. But her new identity is threatened by an event she is witness to.
GHOST TRAIL/LES FANTÔMES (2024)
A taut and unsettling political thriller about a Syrian refugee looking for the man who tortured him when he was a prisoner.
The question of how love alters our identity lies at the heart of this debut from one of London’s best-loved drag queens, Palestinian-British Glamrou.
Confronting master narratives and calling on oral histories, this programme explores encounters with the archive across colonial collections, personal testimonies and whispered counter-narratives.
AT THE VERGE OF WORDLESSNESS (2024) A 5-minute stop-motion animation interrogates images in a book on Israeli state formation, questioning what lies beyond the image.
AVANT SERIANA BEFORE SERIANA (2024) Studying Algeria’s Aurès region, this film unveils two worlds: the rugged mountains and an imagined realm born from colonial stories.
A FIDAI FILM (2024)
Re-positioning archival fragments and burning through parts of the original image in searing red, A Fidai Film lays bare the looting of Palestinian visual history.
Three films about ritual, myth and national history from Palestine, Thailand and Iran.
NIGHT WE HELD BETWEEN (2024)
Myth, ritual and longing at Palestinian sites intertwine with archival songs and photos. Landscape holds cavernous memory, grief, and strength.
Allow your childlike curiosity to take hold as you settle into this programme from around the globe that explores what it’s like viewing life through a child’s eyes.
A SHORT FILM ABOUT KIDS
Director-Screenwriter Ibrahim Handal. Four kids from a refugee camp in Bethlehem are on a mission to see the sea for the first time.
DAWN EVERY DAY
Director-Screenwriter Amir Youssef. Against the backdrop of the post-nationalised Egypt of 1956, eight-year-old Nabil scrabbles to keep his friend from moving away.
VIBRATIONS FROM GAZA
Director-Screenwriter Rehab Nazzal. A documentary offering a glimpse into the resilience of Palestinian Deaf children in Gaza, who are living with Israel’s military attacks.
SO good to see so much Arab representation this year, and what an exciting programme, We can’t wait! Head to the BFI London Film Festival website for more details and how to book.