Highlighting Arab Films Tackling Today’s Most Urgent Issues
Filmmakers confront themes such as war, prison camps, migrant smuggling, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and cosmetic surgery
After a forced break and several postponements, Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival returns this year for its seventh edition. The program is rich and diverse, with a strong focus on Arab films that address pressing contemporary issues. The festival will be held October 1–5 at Metropolis Cinema’s new space, after the original venue hosted the festival’s early editions. Festival Director Myriam Sassine acknowledged in a statement that “Resuming MaskoonFFF was not easy. How can we speak about fantasy and genre cinema in a region devastated by wars, chaos, and ethnic cleansing?” Yet, she stressed that “the power of imagination and the voices of Arab filmmakers become, in such difficult times, more important than ever.”
Artistic Director Antoine Waked emphasized that “this year’s program gives Arab cinema a central place, devoting the majority of the selection to Arab filmmakers.”
Opening Film & Screenings
The festival opens with the Lebanese feature The Sea and Its Waves by Liana Kassir and Renaud Pachot, which premiered in the ACID section at Cannes Film Festival. The film follows Najwa and her musician brother Mansour as they arrive in Beirut on a full moon night, searching for smugglers who can take them by sea to Norway, while Salim, an old lighthouse keeper, struggles to bring light back to his neighborhood. In 2018, Maskoon had already screened Kassir and Pachot’s short film Dog River.
Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui returns to Maskoon with her debut feature Animalia after first participating in 2020 with her multi-award-winning short So What If the Goats Die. Premiering at Sundance, Animalia was widely acclaimed and won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The film tells the story of a pregnant young woman from a modest background, living with her wealthy in-laws, who finds herself separated from her family amid supernatural events plunging the country into a state of emergency.
Also from Morocco comes Hounds by Kamal Lazraq, a crime thriller that premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, where it won the Jury Prize. It follows a man and his son who get entangled in a nightmare after a botched kidnapping in Casablanca for a gang leader.
Tunisia is represented with Behind the Mountains by filmmaker Mohamed Ben Attia, a mysterious drama that premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film tells the story of a man who gets out of prison and takes his son on a journey into the mountains to reveal his ability to fly.
From Lebanon, two shorts by two Lebanese filmmakers are featured: The Watchman by Ali Cherri, about a solitary border guard waiting for an enemy that never comes, and Never Have I Ever by Joyce Nashawati, a chilling thriller about a woman who wakes up bound and gagged in a car driven by a stranger.
This year’s classics section includes the restored masterpiece Oldboy (2003) by Korean master Park Chan-wook, restored in 2023. The festival also pays tribute to the legendary David Lynch, who passed away earlier this year with two films screening: Lynch/Oz by Alexandre O. Philippe which analyzes the influence of The Wizard of Oz on Lynch’s body of work, and the restored version of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
Short Film Competition
Maskoon’s Arab Short Film Competition showcases eight bold and diverse works:
- Beyond the Sun by Syrian filmmaker Yazan Rabee, about military officers overseeing Syrian prisons under the former regime.
- Seminal Animals by Moroccan Karim Souissi, on the issue of harassment.
- Ladies Coffee by Amal Al-Agroobi (UAE), where a casual coffee-cup reading turns into horror.
- Rouge by Saudi filmmaker Samaher Mosly, a black comedy about women’s cosmetic surgery.
- Transmission by Lebanese director Joseph Kaluf about the haunting of a deadly fire.
- Crow Man by Lebanese filmmaker Yohan Abdelnour, about a girl living with her dying grandfather in a forest hut, fighting against death itself.
- Sixty Egyptian Pounds by Egyptian director Amr Salama, on the theme of domestic violence.
- The Sun Won’t Shine by Egyptian filmmaker Adham Khaled, following a girl and her brother trying to survive in an apocalyptic world where wars have destroyed civilization.
The jury includes Jean Lauer (short film programmer at Fantastic Fest), Palestinian director Said Zagha (Coyotes, which premiered in Venice this year), and Lebanese filmmaker Ahmad Ghossein (All This Victory). The jury will award Maskoon’s Best Arab Short Film Prize, with the winning film included in the competition of Fantastic Fest – Austin, one of the world’s leading genre festivals. The winner of the Best Mediterranean Short Film will be invited to screen at Cinemed Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Montpellier, France.
Panels
Alongside the screenings, two panels will be held. The first brings together directors Liana Kassir, cinematographer Marc Khalife, and producer Matthieu Mullier-Griffiths to discuss the making of The Sea and Its Waves from idea to its Cannes premiere, moderated by Tobias Pausinger, Program Manager at Berlinale Talents. The second features artist and filmmaker Ali Cherri in conversation with AFAC Executive Director Rima Mismar.
As in previous years, animation students from ALBA (Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts) created the festival trailer using stop-motion: Cynthia Abboud, Joyce Abdelnour, Hassan Ali, Carlo Hamamy, Sarah Mrad, Elio Sahioun, and Noah Samaha.
Partners
The festival is organized with the support of several partners: Metropolis Cinema, Fantastic Fest, Cinemed, MAD Distribution, Front Row Entertainment, Film Clinic Indie Distribution, ALBA – University of Balamand, Château St. Thomas, and the Méliès International Festivals Federation of Fantasy Film.
Tickets are available at the special price of 400,000 LBP, on sale at Metropolis Cinema and Antoine Online.