My Favorite Films from the Middle East
Last Seen: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and her Lover
Eligible Countries:
Bahrain
Cyprus
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestine
Palestinian Territory
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Eligible Countries:
Bahrain
Cyprus
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestine
Palestinian Territory
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
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List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
41 titles
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuhammet UzunerYilmaz ErdoganTaner BirselA group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsTaraneh AlidoostiGolshifteh FarahaniShahab HosseiniThe mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsSima Mobarak-ShahiShayesteh IraniAyda SadeqiThe struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein AbediniZahra BahramiMohammad Amir NajiIn a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiAmir Farrokh HashemianBahare SeddiqiAfter a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
- DirectorAri FolmanStarsAri FolmanRon Ben-YishaiRonny DayagAn Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorJacques KatmorStarsAharon AlmogTirzeh ArbelAdar EshetA story of the influence of modern life on a woman, who meets a man in a sculptor's studio, has an affair, and is found dead.
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsHaluk BilginerMelisa SözenDemet AkbagA hotel owner and landlord in a remote Turkish village deals with conflicts within his family and a tenant behind on his rent.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHomayoun ErshadiAbdolhosein BagheriAfshin Khorshid BakhtiariAn Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
- DirectorDervis ZaimStarsAhmet UgurluTuncel KurtizAysen AydemirMahsun is homeless and unemployed. He lives in Rumelihisari (one of the most picturesque and oldest quarters of Istanbul), and tries to stay alive with the help of local fishermen. Mahsun loves cars, he steals at nights and in the mornings he drives them back clean and well kept.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMirhadi TayebiMohsen MakhmalbafAli BakhsiA semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
- DirectorZeki DemirkubuzStarsZeki DemirkubuzSebnem HassanisoughiÖykü KarayelUpon losing his wife and son, Ahmet has to struggle with the feeling of loneliness.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsReza HashemiMehdi ShahravanfarA child carrying a bread is going home but in the alley on his way to home, there is a frightening dog and he doesn't seem to pass it alone.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorDover KoshashviliStarsLior AshkenaziRonit ElkabetzMoni MoshonovZaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.
- DirectorÇagan IrmakStarsÇetin TekindorFikret KuskanHümeyraThe family of a left-wing journalist is torn apart after the military coup of Turkey in 1980.
- DirectorHenry BarakatStarsFaten HamamahZaki RostomAbdallah GheithA poor peasant woman becomes a symbol of worker oppression in this somber social drama directed by Henri Barakat. Azziza (Faten Hamama) is brutally raped by a guard when she goes into the fields to gather potatoes for her husband (Abdallah Gheiss). She does not relate the incident to her husband who is suffering from an undisclosed illness. Azziza hides the pregnancy and strangles the baby after it is born, but she also dies soon thereafter. The migrant workers rally around her memory as she becomes a martyr to the cause of the struggling peasants.
- DirectorEbrahim GolestanStarsTaji AhmadiZackaria HashemiGoli BozorgmehrHashem (Zakariya Hashemi) is a cab driver who finds an infant child in the back seat of his cab one night after he gives a ride to a young woman. He and his girlfriend, Taji (Taji Ahmadi), try to cope with this unwanted child. Hashem insists on getting rid of the child, Taji on keeping him.
- DirectorHussein KamalStarsShukri SarhanZizi MustafaSeif AbdelrahmanAbbas, a resident of Cairo, is appointed by the government to hold the office of supervisor in a post office in a small village in Upper Egypt.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsKais NashifAli SulimanLubna AzabalTwo childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
- DirectorTewfik SalehStarsMohamed Kheir-HalouaniAbdul Rahman Al RashiBassan Lofti Abou-GhazalaThree men, stranded in Iraq, illegally cross the Syrian border to seek work in Kuwait, aided by a water-truck driver.
- DirectorTolga KaraçelikStarsNadir SaribacakHakan KarsakKadir ÇermikWhen the crew of a bankrupt cargo ship gets stuck on board for months, isolation breeds pressures that sink the men into a sea of madness and terror.
- DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsRami DoueiriNaamar SahliMohamad ChamasIn April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsFaramarz GharibianTaraneh AlidoostiBabak AnsariIn Islamic Iran, how much is a woman worth in comparison with a man, and who pays the difference? This film is tale of vengeance, labyrinthine judicial procedure & the concept of "blood money."
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMohamad Ali KeshavarzFarhad KheradmandZarifeh ShivaA depiction of the off-screen relationship between the actors who play the newlyweds in the film And Life Goes On (1992).
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsFarhad KheradmandPouya PayvarBehrouz AbediniA director and his son return to a region damaged by the Guilan earthquake, hoping to find the children who appeared in his film a few years earlier.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMasud ZandbeglehHassan DarabiMostafa TariA grade-school-age boy, neglected by his parents, lies, cheats, and steals to accumulate enough money to afford a bus ride to a large city and a ticket to see his favorite soccer team play.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabek Ahmed PoorAhmed Ahmed PoorKhodabakhsh DefaeiEight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiNasrin SotoudehBanned from making movies by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about social challenges in Iran.
- DirectorHenry BarakatStarsFaten HamamahAhmad MazharAminah RizqThis compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuzaffer ÖzdemirMehmet Emin ToprakZuhal GencerAfter his wife leaves him, a photographer has an existential crisis and tries to cope with his cousin's visit.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsYavuz BingölHatice AslanAhmet Rifat SungarA family suffers from a major communication breakdown during their struggle to get through their hardships.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMania AkbariAmina MaherKamran AdlA visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
- DirectorPanahbarkhoda RezaeeStarsParivash NazariehMasoud HeshmatBehrooz JaliliA widow and her father live alone and make a living by mending oil lamps and making charcoal.
- DirectorYilmaz GüneyStarsYilmaz GüneyNebahat ÇehreHayati HamzaogluSeyyit Han is a man with many foes. One day he falls in love with Mürsit's sister, Keje. Mürsit is fine with them marrying, only on one condition: Seyyit Han has to get rid of his enemies to offer a decent life for Keje. Having set on a journey to do so, one day he victoriously returns to his hometown: the day Keje is marrying another man.