Qumra
Thirty-six projects at various stages of production have been selected to benefit from the experience of the Qumra Masters, as well as bespoke mentorship and business meetings with international experts. The primary motive of this international gathering of creative film professionals is to contribute to the development of emerging voices in cinema, with a special focus on first- and second-time filmmakers.
Click here to download Qumra 2019 Catalogue.
Feature Narrative: Development
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Behind Closed Doors
Hend Fakhroo
Leila wakes up one day and finds her mother gone with just her father to take care of her. After weeks of struggling, the small family settles into an emotional equilibrium, only to have Leila’s mother suddenly return.
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Daughters of Abdul-Rahman
Zaid Abu Hamdan
Four estranged and offbeat sisters are forced to come together to find their suddenly-missing father.
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Lavandula
Mahdi Ali Ali
A boy goes through a psychological change process to discover the reasons behind the divorce of his parents.
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In Vitro
Larissa Sansour
After an eco-apocalypse, the dying founder of a vast underground orchard passes on instructions to her younger successor who was born underground, making her a stranger to the place she is destined to rebuild.
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Khuzama
A.J. Al-Thani
Set against the harsh desert backdrop, a Bedouin girl is thrown into a world of turmoil and violence which she can only survive with the help of a group of nomadic women.
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Mediterranean Fever
Maha Haj
An aspiring but depressed writer from Haifa befriends his new neighbour in an attempt to convince the man to help him commit suicide.
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My Little One
Kadija Leclere
Sarah, a Belgian woman of Moroccan descent, adopts a little girl in Morocco. But when the Belgian authorities deny her child’s visa, it is the beginning of an arduous ordeal for both of them.
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Severed Head
Lotfi Achour
Two teenage shepherds are captured on a Tunisian mountainside by jihadists. Decapitating the eldest, the 14-year-old sheepherder must return his cousin’s head to the victim’s mother.
Feature Documentary: Development
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Femmetasia
Mouhssine El Badaoui
Hanane, a young woman from a modest village in Marrakech decides to enter the traditionally male-only festival of battle bravery, Fantasia. Assembling her own troupe of horsewomen, she must face the prejudices of a patriarchal society.
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Qatar Stars
Danielle Beverly
Qatar is one of the wealthiest, most aspirational, and most scrutinised countries in the world. What is it like to grow up as a girl in this rapidly changing, majority-Muslim nation; that is a clash of tradition and modernity? For the Olympic Stars, a rhythmic gymnastics team for girls aged 9-15, it offers empowerment opportunities their mothers never had.
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The Earth Doesn't Move
Yosr Gasmi
This is a contemporary story about migration, borders and an eternal wanderer. It’s about exile and space, movement and the human race.
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We Are Inside
Farah Kassem
Returning to her father’s house in the radicalised city of Tripoli, Farah realises that the only way to connect with him is by joining his male-dominated poetry club.
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You Don't Die Two Times
Ager Oueslati
Prisca, Gift, and Jenny fled their home countries in Africa in the hope of a better life in Europe. A migratory odyssey fraught with violence, smugglers, and closed borders, where the three women attempt to reach their ‘El Dorado’ at any price.
Feature Narrative: Work-in-Progress
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Abou Leila
Amin Sidi-Boumédiène
Algeria, March 1994. Childhood friends S. and Lotfi travel through the Algerian desert looking for Abou Leila, a dangerous terrorist on the run.
Feature Documentary: Work-in-Progress
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Children of the Famine
Reine Mitri
Between 1915 and 1918, an estimated 200,000 people died from hunger in Mount Lebanon. For them, there is no memorial. Few photos remain, and ruins emerge from oblivion.
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Places Of The Soul
Hamida Issa
A Qatari woman travels on an environmental expedition to Antarctica in search of hope for a sustainable future before returning to Qatar in search of inspiration to make positive change.
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Republic of Silence
Diana El Jeiroudi
She grew up in a land of dictators and surveillance. Today, from her exile, she is reclaiming the images and sounds of Syrians, half of whom are scattered around the world.
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The Forbidden Strings
Hasan Noori
Born and raised in Iran, four Afghan musicians risk a dangerous journey from Iran to Afghanistan to make a dream come true— their first rock concert in their war-torn motherland.
Feature Narrative: Picture Lock
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Bombay Rose
Gitanjali Rao
Painted frame by frame, ‘Bombay Rose’ is an animated love story set on the streets of Bombay.
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Noura Dreams
Hinde Boujemaa
Noura struggles to raise her three children alone while her husband is in jail—until she meets Lassaad. Their plans to be together, however, are jeopardised by the impending release of her husband, and the two decide to flee.
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Papicha
Mounia Meddour
Nedjma refuses to submit to fear during the Algerian Civil War by fulfilling her dream of putting on a fashion show.
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Sanctorum
Joshua Gill
A child’s spiritual and magical quest for his disappeared mother in a small town racked between the army and drug traffickers.
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Sister
Svetla Tsotsorkova
The lie of a teenage girl destroys the world of her elder sister. Struggling to regain her sister’s trust, she finds out the truth about their mother.
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The Unknown Saint
Alaa Eddine Aljem
After years in captivity, a thief returns to retrieve the money he stole and discovers a mausoleum unexpectedly built on the site where he stashed the money.
Feature Documentary: Picture Lock
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Froth
Ilya Povolotskiy
The story of three people living on the coast of the Barents Sea who are united by an incredible blend of humility, inherent rebelliousness, a very specific moral code, and their attitude towards life.
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The Cave
Feras Fayyad
A group of female doctors establish a subterranean hospital in order to save the lives of victims of chemical and conventional weapons during the Syrian civil war.
Short Narrative: Development
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6 Months and 1 Day
Yassine Ouahrani
After his pension gets withheld, Aziz, an old retired immigrant, must confront his landlord at the risk of losing his home.
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Al-Azza
Eiman Mirghani
Following the death of her estranged mother, Arwa returns to her childhood home, where she must comply with religious traditions and wash her mother’s body before burial—setting a turn of events which will make her question her identity and why she ran away from home.
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Border
Khalifa Al-Thani
Border is a short film about a Middle Eastern man who wants to cross the border. But bypassing the security becomes a near impossible journey.
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J'ai le Cafard
Maysaa Almumin
In a demanding corporate office, forty-two-year-old Maryam develops a relationship with a cockroach that becomes both her saving grace and cause for angst.
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Msa7ar
Hassan Al-Malki
Fatima seeks to capture the local Msa7ar (em-sa-har) to wake up her dying grandmother, but can she overcome her fear of the dark in order to save her grandma?
Short Narrative: Work-in-Progress
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Beit Byoot
Mayar Hamdan
Jameela, a friendly little girl, wants nothing more than to fit in with two-carbon copy mean girls. But when she meets odd Yasmine, she must choose between conformity and being herself.
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Black Veil
A.J. Al-Thani
Many women around the world suffer under oppression and dream of escaping it. ‘The Black Veil’ is the story of one woman who puts her life at risk in order to find her freedom.
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End of the Road
Ahmad Al-Sharif
When a mysterious old man appears on the side of the road, Munir, an honest and God-fearing taxi driver, must make a choice on the night of his daughter’s birthday. His decision will shape his faith in humanity forever.
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In the Middle
Mariam Al-Dhubhani
Forced to pick up arms, Ali is stranded between his crushed dreams and the harsh reality of Aden— a city torn apart by the ongoing war in Yemen.
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Paper Plane
Nada Bedair
In a strict school, a new girl, Zayn, prompts her classmate Noor to make her dream kite. As both twelve-year-old girls embark on a kite-making mission, they soon find themselves in trouble with the school nuns.
