São Paulo – Comedy, drama, thriller, documentary, animation, fantasy. Different Arab film productions tell us a little about the millenary culture of the people and their countries. ANBA selected some Arab movies and TV series to watch during the quarantine in streaming platforms and subscription services. Check out.
Movies
It Must Be Heaven (97 min, 2019)
“It Must Be Heaven” is a comic saga where Suleiman plays a Palestinian man that leaves his homeland but finds unexpected parallels to his birth country wherever he goes. He leaves Palestine in search of a new life, but in Paris or New York, Palestine seems to chase him, as something always reminds him of home. Guest-starred by Gael García Bernal.
Palestinian director, writer and actor Elia Suleiman plays some version of himself in all his movies. The artist accepted the Humanity Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival last year, when he talked to ANBA.
The movie can be rented on Net Now.
Central Airport THF (100 min, 2018)
Brazilian-Algerian Karim Aïnouz directs the documentary “Central Airport THF,” a movie that depicts the daily life of a young Syrian in the defunct Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany, which was built by the Nazis, while he waits for the authorities to decide on his permanence in the country.
In an interview with ANBA last year, after winning an award in Cannes for “The Invisible Life,” Aïnouz talked about the documentary. “I think we should be very careful because there is a constant effort to villainize the Arab young man, and this happened to me in France when I was young, because of my name… It was something that really bothered me back then, and I think that, in the last few years, with the Daesh [ISIS], the invasion of Syria, people are turning things upside down and blaming the victims, as those are the real victims of a war that was not caused only by domestic reasons but by foreign trade reasons, too.”
The documentary is available on Net Now.
The Idol (98 min, 2017)
“The Idol” tells the story of Mohammed, a Libyan-Palestinian young man who has always dreamt of becoming a successful signer. When he sees the announcement of registrations for the Arab Idol TV show, he tries to overcome the dangers of crossing Gaza, Palestine, to reach the selection venue so that he can make his dreams come true.
Directed by Hany Abu-Assad, who made “Omar” and “Paradise Now,” the drama is on Amazon Prime Video. Watch the trailer.
Masameer – The Movie (110 min, 2020)
The Saudi animation tells the story of Dana, a young engineer and programmer who lives in Riyadh and wants to do good in the world through robotics with a trio of friends who set out to prove their worth by fighting crimes.
The feature film is based on a popular miniseries and is available on Netflix.
TV shows
Jinn
Netflix’s first Arabic original series debuted last year. Filmed in Amman and Petra, the teen soap shows the freedom of the Jordanian youth clashing out with the ancestral folklore of the jinns, which are spirits with supernatural powers that can manifest in different shapes and sizes. The TV show seems to want to change the perception that the world has of the Middle Eastern youth, with a drama filled with mystery.
A group of high schoolers from Seven Hills Academy in Aman makes a trip to Petra to get to know the ancient town carved into the red stone mountains. Before they even arrive, the story of jinns is mentioned by some characters. Petra seems to be a mystical place where these creatures – which may be good or evil – may appear and possess the body of humans and animals.
Read the review here. Jinn’s first season is available on Netflix.
Al Hayba
Lebanese-Syrian drama TV series is set in a fictional village of “Al Hayba, Lebanon, near the Lebanese-Syrian border. It is centered around the Lebanese “Sheikh Al Jabal” clan. The story shows the members of this family, which is part of a larger tribe that has an ongoing historic feud with the Lebanese Al Said clan in the village of Al Hayba. The two families constantly struggle against one another, along with internal strife. The series is in Lebanese standard dialect, Lebanese Baalbek dialect, and the Syrian dialect of Arabic.
Directed by Samer Barqawi and starring Taim Hasan, Nadine Nassib Njeim, the production first aired in 2017, during the month of Ramadan, and its first season has 30 episodes available on Netflix. The second season was released on TV last year but is yet to be made available on the platform
Justice
This was the first UAE series made available on Netflix and debuted in January 2019. The legal drama’s first season has 18 episodes.
“Justice” follows Farah, an ambitious and passionate young lawyer who has just returned home after attaining a law degree in the US. Farah’s father is one of the UAE’s top lawyers and has great ambitions for his daughter’s career at his prestigious firm. Although she has always looked up to her father, Farah, however, has other plans. She is determined to succeed on her own and does so while pushing the legal and cultural envelope in the process.
“Qalb Al Adala,” or Justice, was produced in partnership with Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, which acted as consultant on the show and provided access to real local cases to ensure authenticity on storylines. The series was produced by Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Beelink,
Dollar
The Lebanese Arabic-language series stars Amel Bouchoucha and Adel Karam. It was released in 2019, on Netflix. The plot revolves around Tarek, who is given the objective to come up with an idea to make a million dollar to launch of a new bank.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
