The selection of Arab films at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival highlights the enduring partnership between Sarajevo Film Festival and Doha Film Institute (DFI), now spanning over a decade.
Founded in 2010, DFI is an independent, non-profit cultural organisation that supports the growth of the Arab film community by enhancing industry knowledge, cultivating film appreciation and contributing to the development of sustainable film and creative industries in Qatar and the wider Middle East region.
The Institute’s activities include funding and production of local, regional, and international films, training and development programmes, film screenings, and annual film events, Qumra and Doha Film Festival.
With culture, community, and education at its core, DFI aligns with Qatar’s 2030 vision for a knowledge-based economy.
Thanks to the partnership between the Sarajevo Film Festival and Doha Film Institute, audiences will have the opportunity to experience a number of outstanding feature-length and short films as part of the “Sarajevo Film Festival Partner Presents” programme.
In addition to the titles featured in the Sarajevo Partner Presents programme, the Sarajevo Film Festival will also screen The Fin from the Kinoscope Surreal selection and Renoir from the Summer Screen programme, both supported by Doha Film Institute.
Sarajevo Film Partner Presents:
SPECIAL SCREENING – DFI PRESENTS
WITH HASAN IN GAZA
Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar, 2025, Colour, 106 min.
Director: Kamal Aljafari
Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently discovered. The footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists. What started as a search for a former prison inmate in 1989—a man lost to time and war—led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown. As the camera moves through Gaza’s streets and landscapes, it records fleeting moments of everyday life—fragments of a reality now irreversibly altered. WITH HASAN IN GAZA transforms this forgotten footage into a cinematic reflection on memory, loss, and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
France, Palestine, Germany, Portugal, Qatar, Jordan, 2025, Colour, 90 min.
Director: Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser
Cast: Nader Abd Alhay, Ramzi Maqdisi, Majd Eid
Gaza, 2007. Yahya, a young student, forges a friendship with Osama, a charismatic restaurant owner with a big heart. Together, they start peddling drugs while delivering falafel sandwiches, but they are soon forced to grapple with a corrupt cop and his oversized ego.
DEAD DOG
Lebanon, 2025, Colour, 92 min.
Director: Sarah Francis
Cast: Chirine Karameh, Nida Wakim
On a rainy evening, Aida drives into the Lebanese mountains and unlocks an empty family house where her husband, Walid, who has been living abroad for years, is confronted by her presence. Temporarily reunited in the same space, they must face the state of their lives together and apart. Is there anything left to be saved.
SPECIAL SCREENING – DFI PRESENTS
WITH HASAN IN GAZA
Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar, 2025, Colour, 106 min.
Director: Kamal Aljafari
Three MiniDV tapes of life in Gaza from 2001 were recently discovered. The footage is now a testament to a place and time that no longer exists. What started as a search for a former prison inmate in 1989—a man lost to time and war—led to an unexpected road trip from the north to the south of Gaza with Hasan, a local guide whose fate remains unknown. As the camera moves through Gaza’s streets and landscapes, it records fleeting moments of everyday life—fragments of a reality now irreversibly altered. WITH HASAN IN GAZA transforms this forgotten footage into a cinematic reflection on memory, loss, and the passage of time, capturing a Gaza of the past and lives that may never be found again.
SHORTCUTS TO QATAR
ALKALINE
Qatar, 2024, Colour, 19 min.
Director: Paul Abraham, Abdulla Al Horr
After a man becomes obsessed with an extreme organic lifestyle following a health scare, his son navigates the growing rift between them, seeking to understand the deeper fears that drive their conflicting views on health and family.
BRESHNA
Qatar, 2024, Colour, 13 min.
Director: Obada Jarbi
Scarred by a brutal terrorist attack in Kabul and forced to flee her homeland, Breshna carries within her an unshakeable hope for peace and the promise of a new beginning.
COCHLEA
Qatar, 2024, Colour, 8 min
Director: Karim Emara
Cast: Nour Hassan, Walid Jaber
A divorced Arab mother reunites with her son and insists on washing him, prompting him to face her unique expression of love.
CAN YOU SEE ME?
Qatar, 2024, Colour, 6 min.
Director: Dhoha Abdelsattar
Cast: Rosey Nader, Yousef Rammah
In the shadow of an isolated life, a woman grapples with a quiet yet profound loneliness, eventually forcing herself to confront her inner turmoil and the possibilities of change.
I LAY FOR YOU TO SLEEP
Qatar, 2024, Colour, 15 min.
Director: Ali Al Hajri
Cast: Ali Al Hajri, Roua Kalai, Ahmed Aljabri, Mohammed Al Dosari
Surrounded by grief-stricken women who wash him with care, Ali’s soul drifts through glimpses of loved ones, spurring revelations that alter his perceptions.
“Thanks to our longstanding collaboration with the Doha Film Institute, we bring authentic and powerful voices from the Arab world to the Sarajevo Film Festival audience each year. For us, this collaboration is more than a programming partnership – it is a sharing of values, trust, and a joint commitment to film as a medium of memory, resistance, and empathy,” said Jovan Marjanović, Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from August 15 to 22, 2025.
