middle-eastern films to watch
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- DirectorNana EkvtimishviliSimon GroßStarsIa ShugliashviliMerab NinidzeBerta KhapavaA woman separates from her family after 52 years in a multi-generational Georgian household to begin her own adventure. To the shock of her relatives, she leaves everything behind to start again.
- DirectorYaky YoshaStarsMiriam Bernstein-CohenGedalia BesserLevana FinkelsteinAmi Sus'etz, an Israeli artist, abandons his wife and daughter in New York, and comes back to his home land after years of absence. Sus'etz wishes to decipher his constant feeling of failure as a human being, as a family man, as an artist. His best friends were killed in war, his paintings were burned not without intent. He has no past and no future. Back home Sus'etz reunites with his dying father, with his mother, who unsuccessfully tries to understand her son, and with a childhood friend, Ansberg, now a philosopher/homeless. Ansberg has adopted unusual methods in order to bring love back to Tel Aviv and expects "conscientious" Sus'etz to assist him in that. Sus'etz cannot be a "conscientious", or anything else for that matter, not before he resolves his own personal fate: who is he, why was he born, why does he live. Ami Sus'etz decides to make a movie, about himself, his parents, his hometown Tel Aviv, and about all that constitutes the puzzle we call human life. His movie fails in resolving the pattern but ironically becomes a commercial blockbuster. At the end of the day, the movie gets burned, just like the paintings, not without intent.
- DirectorAmos GuttmanStarsIcho AvitalShay CaponAmiram GabrielAdapted from Yoram Kaniuk's best-selling novel, this heart-rending love story unfolds during the siege of Jerusalem in 1948. A young and beautiful volunteer nurse is drawn to the enigmatic Himmo, a mortally wounded and mutilated soldier who cannot speak or move.
- DirectorOded DavidoffStarsBar BelferYonatan Bar-OrYuval MendelsonThrough the streets of Jerusalem two teenagers' stories will unite to tell the summer adventure of their lives. Tamar is an amazingly talented but very quiet and insecure girl, who leaves behind her home and all she knows, changing herself unrecognizably -from her looks to her attitude- to brace herself for a dangerous mission to help a loved-one. Asaf, a clumsy, naive, and very shy boy working a boring summer job at City Hall, is given quite a mission himself : to take an uncontrollable stray dog from the pound, put it on a leash, and let it lead him back to its owners to be fined. The dog -Dinkah leads Asaf through the city to the people and places that will tell him about Dinka's owner -Tamar and her sudden disappearance. The more stories Asaf hears about this extraordinary girl, the more he falls for her, and as he and Dinkah continue their journey Asaf becomes aware that Tamar is in grave danger. Feeling he knows her, and knowing he loves her Asaf is determined to find Tamar and rescue her from her own rescue mission. This movie tells a beautiful story based on the novel by David Grossman, about growing up and finding the strength to overcome your fears, the meaning of true friendship, and best of all, finding someone to love, someone to hold, someone to run with...
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsIvan MikolaychukLarisa KadochnikovaTatyana BestayevaA timeless Carpathian story - the young Ivan falls in love with the daughter of his father's killer among the Hutsul people of Ukraine.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaIgor TalankinStarsBoris BarkhatovSergey BondarchukIrina SkobtsevaThe mother of a 5 years old Seryozha remarries. This man becomes a friend and a confident, an adult who see Seryozha not as a child, but as a person.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsBoris AndreyevOleg ZhakovLyubov SokolovaYoung Vasya finds a job on the sea rescue tow Kola, where he befriends a bunch of colorful characters: sailors Bruno and Marat and constantly depressed bosun Zosima. Kola gets a task to retrieve Polotsk, a ship, abandoned during the war.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsNikita MikhalkovAleksei LoktevGalina PolskikhYoung Siberian writer Volodya meets Kolya in the Moscow metro in his visit to a famous author. Volodya and Kolya's friend Sasha adventure their love interests in their own way, while Kolya sets out to help them.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsSergo ZakariadzeVakhtang KikabidzeSofiko ChiaureliA young happy-go-lucky village doctor lives a leisurely life as comic events unfold around him.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsEvgeniy LeonovIya SavvinaNina GrebeshkovaA kind, cheerful man suddenly turns into a sullen, angry grumbler. All around begins to annoy him, and he mercilessly destroys his family, job, entire life. It was caused by an evil magic mirror, and only human tears can heal it.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsGérard DarmonNatalya GundarevaOleg YankovskiyA case of mistaken identity, by a switched Passport leaves a Georgian man stranded in Israel.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsVakhtang KikabidzeFrunzik MkrtchyanElena ProklovaLocal Georgian pilot Mimino dreams of flying airplanes for major international airlines. To realize his aspirations, he goes to Moscow where he encounters a fellow comrade from the Caucasus, the Armenian Rubik. Many misadventures ensue.
- DirectorGeorgiy DaneliyaStarsOleg BasilashviliNatalya GundarevaMarina NeyolovaMiddle-aged university professor desperately tries to strike a balance in his life between his wife and his mistress, slowly getting bogged down in his own lies.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsAvtandil VaraziDodo AbashidzeZurab KapianidzeThe story of self-taught Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsGeidar PalavandishviliKote DaushviliIrakli KokrashviliIn the midst of Alaverdoba, an ordinal person plays out a trick to awake pilgrims and their moral spirits, and to remind them of the true meanings of the religious festival.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsAleko GabechavaManana AbazadzeGeorgi KavtaradzeFascinated with Matsi's fancy riding, a slaver queen offers him a job in her retinue. Matsi turns the offer down as he fights against slave trading and migrates towards Svaneti with his beloved Eka to flee from queen's vengeance.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsSofiko ChiaureliVakhtang KikabidzeIa NinidzePavle, who is a poor cart-driver has two girls, Maro and Tamro. The girls have a dream to take classes at a ballet school, but Pavle cannot afford such a luxury. Vardo, a laundress, decides to help the little girls.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsGia PeradzeLevan AbashidzeZura KipshidzeIn 1905, young composer Nikusha, travels to the villages of a post-revolutionary Georgia to collect folk songs.
- DirectorGiorgi ShengelaiaStarsOmar PkhakadzeLevan TedaishviliMikheil SaladzeThis film tells the story fighters who are fighting against the feudal order in Georgia.
- DirectorEytan FoxStarsLior AshkenaziKnut BergerCaroline PetersFollowing the suicide of his wife, an Israeli intelligence agent is assigned to befriend the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal.
- DirectorEytan FoxStarsOhad KnollerYousef 'Joe' SweidDaniella Wircer"The Bubble" is the story of a group of young people who live in Tel Aviv, Israel. The movie follows the group's difficulties of living in Israel's reality. Their routine breaks when a young Palestinian man enters their lives.
- DirectorHaim TabakmanStarsZohar StraussRan Khalil DankerTinkerbellA married, Orthodox, Jerusalem butcher and Jewish father of four falls in love with his handsome, 22-year-old male apprentice, triggering the suspicions of his wife and the disapproval of his Orthodox community.
- DirectorEytan FoxStarsOhad KnollerShlomo SadanOz ZehaviThis sequel to "Yossi and Jagger" finds Dr. Yossi Gutmann reminiscing about his love ten years after his death. When he encounters a group of young soldiers, one of them, Tom, reignites his romantic feelings.
- DirectorEytan FoxStarsOhad KnollerYehuda LeviAssi CohenRomance blooms between two soldiers (Knoller, Levi) stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovDodo AbashidzeStarsYuri MgoyanSofiko ChiaureliRamaz ChkhikvadzeA talented but poor minstrel is forced to wander throughout the world because of impossibility to be with his true love - a rich merchant's daughter.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovDodo AbashidzeStarsVeriko AnjaparidzeTamari TsitsishviliDudukhana TserodzeA film version of a well-known Georgian folk-tale. A young boy has to be immured into the walls of a fortress in order to stop it from crumbling to pieces.
- DirectorEldar ShengelaiaStarsRamaz GiorgobianiVasil KakhniashviliTeimuraz ChirgadzeAn author - a passive young man - enters the Soviet-controlled bureaucracy of Georgia attempting to get his novel published only to be neglected and compartmentalized at every turn.
- DirectorEldar ShengelaiaStarsVasili ChkhaidzeDato JgentiAriadna ShengelaiaIn the pursuit of happiness orphan Ertaoz left for city, where he fell in love with pretty Margalita and went to jail to save her. There he met his future teacher Qristepore who dreamed of building flying machine and they broke the prison.
- DirectorGuguli MgeladzeStarsDodo AbashidzeIosif JachvlianiLevan AbashidzeGiorgi leaves his country in search of a job and settles down in France. He doesn't loose hope that one day he will return to his homeland, his "roots".
- DirectorTemur BabluaniStarsElguja BurduliDavid KazishviliLia BabluaniAbout a doctor named Gela Bendeliani (Elgudzha Burduli) and his wealthless family in Tbilisi in Soviet Georgia. In the film Gela Bendeliani has an unlimited capacity for generosity and forgiveness.
- DirectorTengiz AbuladzeStarsLika KavzharadzeIosif JachvlianiZaza KolelishviliThis film is about psychology of people, about lonesome persons, about terrible mentality and about fantastic dreams...
- DirectorTengiz AbuladzeStarsSergo OrjonikidzeSesilia TakaishviliAleksandre JorjolianiGrandma Olgha up-brings orphan Zurikela in poverty. Their struggle for life is being relieved by support of their kind neighbors, Iliko and Ilarion, whose merit is the exceptional sense of humor.
- DirectorRezo ChkheidzeStarsSergo ZakariadzeVladimir PrivaltsevAleksandr NazarovAn old man goes to visit his wounded son in a hospital, but it turns out that he's already been released and is back on the front lines. Reluctant to return home empty-handed, he tries to follow and find him.
- StarsOtar MegvinetukhutsesiTengiz ArchvadzeJüri JärvetA just man becomes an outlaw. He is pursued by the police over the years, while he tries to fight the injustice in the world, but he can't figure out the minds of his fellow men, and is often misunderstood.
- DirectorGeorge OvashviliStarsTedo BekhauriTamar MeskhiArchil TabukashviliA young refugee and his mother flee war and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, leaving his father behind. After arriving in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the young boy encounters difficulties with his mother, and begins a lonely journey back to Abkhazia to find his father.
- DirectorLevan KoguashviliStarsGuga KotetishviliIrakli RamishviliGiorgi KipshidzeA drug addict is being threatened by jail if he doesn't set up his childhood friend's son.
- DirectorTengiz AbuladzeStarsAvtandil MakharadzeZeinab BotsvadzeIa NinidzeVarlam, the despotic mayor of a small town, dies. After his funeral, his body is repeatedly unearthed and buried again. Through flashbacks and dreamlike scenes, we witness his rise, power and ambiguities.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMikheil GomiashviliDachi OrvelashviliIa SukhitashviliA brutal dictator comes face to face with the injustices committed by his regime when his country is taken over by revolutionists.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsZiya Mirza MohamadHaron AhadGol-GhotaiA wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsFatemeh Cherag AkharHassan NebhanShahr Banou SisizadehA film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can no longer play with the boys she had been playing with only the day before because she is now a woman. Told from the perspective of a 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" refers to, we see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy with whom she had been friends. The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. As first, the husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home. The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her. Finally, the third part shows us an old woman who has come into some money and is now free to do what she wants. The way she chooses to use this freedom, however, makes one wonder just how free she is.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsTahmineh NormatovaNadereh AbdelahyevaGoibibi ZiadolahyevaEvery day, 10-year-old Khorsid takes the bus to his work at an instrument maker's shop, and every day something unexpected happens.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsMassoumeh NaderiZahra NaderiGhorban Ali NaderiAfter twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsEzzatolah EntezamiMehdi HashemiMohamad Ali KeshavarzAn abstract retelling of the history of Film in Iran.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMahshid AfsharzadehFirouz KianiSamira MakhmalbafThe wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?