And at least one in each section too, including Competition and the new Perspectives for first time features.
While there were rumors of a Palestinian boycott of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, and at least one high profile film by a Palestinian American filmmaker has foregone a European debut at Berlinale, there are a few outstanding Arab titles in the lineup. And all of them have been supported — Quelle surprise! — by the equally extraordinary Doha Film Institute. Year after year, festival after festival, the DFI is the engine that could, born into a country that could only dream of creative a film ecosystem, back in 2010, and today finds itself on the red carpets of all the best film festivals. Their support means the world to filmmakers, and honestly, to a film journo like me too. I’ve mentored for the DFI and their support, coupled with their loyalty, has meant the difference for this woman writer.
So to me, it’s no surprise that once again, the DFI has outdone itself in terms of titles supported, and countries included.
This year’s lineup of DFI-supported films features one film in each section, the Competition, Critics' Week, Forum Expanded, Generation Kplus, Berlinale Special, Perspectives, as well as two films in Panorama.
Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, the wondrous woman at the helm of DFI, as Chief Executive Officer of the Doha Film Institute, said: “The selection of these films at the Berlin Film Festival is a testament to the incredible talent and creativity of young filmmakers from across the world, that stand out for their diversity of themes and their innovative approach to storytelling. It reflects our commitment to supporting filmmakers who are pushing boundaries and telling compelling stories that resonate globally.” She added, “At Doha Film Institute, we believe in the power of cinema to bridge cultures and inspire change, and this achievement reaffirms our mission to elevate voices that deserve to be heard.”
The DFI-supported films at Berlinale 2025 include Yunan (a co-production from Palestine, Germany, Canada, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia as well as Qatar) by Ameer Fakher Eldin, which will screen in the Competition section, the centrepiece of the festival that presents about 20 selections annually. Eldin is an introspective filmmaker, with a very unique voice and his hybrid background — he’s Syrian but also in part Ukrainian, I just found out! — makes for a truly iconoclastic view of the world around him. The story, this time around, focuses on Munir, a renowned Arab author exiled in Germany, who is burdened by psychological torment and plagued by hauntingly vivid dreams. Desperate and despondent, he embarks on a journey to a remote island, where he encounters Valeska — a wise elderly woman played by German cinematic legend and Rainer Werner Fassbinder collaborator Hanna Schygulla — and her steadfast son, Karl. Their presence unexpectedly radiates hope and redemption. It wouldn’t put me too off center to add that the film might be Eldin’s ode to the great, late Maestro Fassbinder himself…
Ancestral Visions of the Future is a title from Lesotho, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese. The film screens in the Berlinale Special segment and is hailed as “a poetic allegory of the filmmaker’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother.” Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery, Mosese crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging.
Screening in the new Perspectives section is instead Mohamed Rashad’s The Settlement from Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. You can’t understand the joy it brings to this weary MENA film writer to write up those two countries next to each other, as supporters of upcoming titles. The film, according to the DFI “follows Hossam who gives up his thuggish lifestyle to be able to provide for his sick mother and brother Maro after the death of his father. Hossam goes to work at the same factory as his father and begins to doubt whether his death was accidental.”
Forum Expanded will feature the world premiere of the documentary My Armenian Phantoms an Armenian, French and Qatari co-production directed by Tamara Stepanyan. The film is a tribute to the director’s father, Vigen Stepanyan, who was a beloved theatre and film actor in Armenia.
Screening in Generation Kplus, the competition program that screens state-of-the-art international cinema, is The Botanist from China and Qatar by Jing Yi, about a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin, in the valley villages of the northern border of Xinjiang, who is obsessed with plants. Through his fascination with the plant world, he recounts memories of his nomadic family in contemporary times.
The two films in the Panorama section include Yalla Parkour! (pictured in the header), that sole Palestinian film, which sees support from Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s DFI. The documentary, on European premiere after winning the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC in June of 2024. Directed by Areeb Zuaiter, it follows Ahmed, who aspires to become an international Parkour champion despite the blockade that troubles Gaza.
Khartoum, from Sudan, UK, Germany and Qatar by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Phil Cox is also a documentary in which four Sudanese filmmakers mix observational documentary and innovative graphics, archives and animation to capture the lives of four real characters, all living and surviving in the war-torn metropolis of Khartoum.
Finally, screening in Critics’ Week is East of Noon from Egypt, the Netherlands and Qatar. The film, by visual artist Hala Elkoussi, is a satire filmed in the style of Egyptian films of the 1950s, and focuses on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world. The film world premiered in Cannes in 2024, as part of the Directors’ Fortnight lineup.
“Once upon a time, there were people who lost their imagination due to fear ”
This year’s Critics’ Week in Berlin also features a former DFI alumni/grantee, the Chinese filmmaker JJ Lin (Jianjie Lin), whose previous film Brief History of a Family received a DFI Fall 2022 post-production grant. His latest, a short titled Hippopotami, screens in Berlin, after premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
All images used with permission.