Qumra
Qumra Projects
Qumra is designed to provide creative and professional support to directors and producers attached to twenty-seven features, seven series and ten short film projects in development, production, and post-production, both fiction and documentary.
The primary goal of this 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. This year, we proudly feature a diverse group of emerging filmmakers from Qatar and beyond, all of whom have benefited from Doha Film Institute’s comprehensive Funding and Training Programmes.
Development / Feature Narrative
In Production / Feature Narrative
Picture Lock / Feature Narrative
Development / Feature Documentary or Essay
Work In Progress / Feature Documentary or Essay
In Production / Feature Documentary or Essay
Qumra Series
Development / Shorts
In Production / Shorts
Work In Progress / Shorts
Development / Feature Narrative
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Eldorado, The Taste of the South
Alaa Eddine Aljem
A group of migrants are looking to reach Eldorado, a secret utopian island where everyone lives in peace. They eventually arrive in a tomato sauce factory of the same name.
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To Leave or To Stay
Azedine Kasri
Dali, a suspended Franco-Algerian pilot, turns to cultivating his parents' olive fields in Algeria. Hindered by a large electrical pole and a dispute with Raïssa over land, they grapple with the decision to leave or stay, encapsulating the Algerian dilemma.
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Al-Dana
Nora Al-Subai
Accused of bringing a curse on the village by the disappearance of the famous black pearl, Al-Dana sets out on an adventure to restore her home, find her missing father, and heal old wounds.
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Trouble Magnet
Ahmad Saleh
Ali, a dramatic teenager, rides an imaginary donkey from Palestine to Germany, carrying to his best friend risky yet humorous tales of his journey, including the story of how he lost his tooth.
In Production / Feature Narrative
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Aisha Can’t Fly Away
Morad Mostafa
The underworld of African migrant society in Cairo and the tension between the different groups, as witnessed by Aisha, a Somali caregiver.
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Roqia
Yanis Koussim
In 1993, Ahmed, rendered amnesic by a car crash, fears his returning memory. Meanwhile, a disciple of an old Raqi (a Muslim exorcist) is worried that his master’s Alzheimer’s may unleash a long-contained evil.
Picture Lock / Feature Narrative
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Across the Sea
Said Hamich Benlarbi
1990. Nour, 27, has immigrated illegally to Marseille. With his friends, he lives a marginal and festive life...
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Ma
The Maw Naing
A young Burmese woman, Mi-Thet, moves to the big city to work in a garment factory to support her family. She is forced to confront traumas in her past as the desperate city life collapses around her during a labour strike.
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Perfumed with Mint
Muhammed Hamdy
Lurking through their city's remains, old friends reunite in a nightmare where mint sprouts out of their bodies. Relentlessly chased by ruthless shadows, will the companions escape the maze, or will they endlessly hide in empty streets filled with memories?
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Celebration
Bruno Anković
We find Mijo hiding in the woods as a soldier of the defeated fascist army at the end of the Second World War. Through his life, we explore the circumstances that led to the expansion of extremism, both in the past and today.
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Locust
KEFF
‘Locust' is set in Taiwan, where a mute twenty-nothing struggles to find meaning in the injustice of everyday life.
Development / Feature Documentary or Essay
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House No 7
Rama Abdi
After escaping their conservative societies, three girls meet and rent rooms in an old Damascene house. They manage to create a safe space isolated from everything. However, the girls soon begin to face many threats and protecting their fragile space becomes a challenge.
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In the Shade of the Royal Palace (Dwellers of the Cabins)
Hend Bakr
My people and I used to live together in the centre of the city, but we were completely detached—as if we lived in a distant, isolated village.
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My Mother & I
Dilpak Majeed
A woman in her seventies, deeply connected with her sheep, embarks on a journey through loss and change when her mother falls ill.
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After Tahar
Soufiane Adel
At 40 years old, in a road movie, I'm drawing a portrait of my father and his fifteen brothers and sisters and my grandfather's Tahar, an Algerian rifleman in Indochina—our self-portrait as Algerian immigrants.
Work In Progress / Feature Documentary or Essay
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Do You Love Me
Lana Daher
A personal journey through Beirut’s fractured historical, social, cultural, and political landscapes. Using archive footage, the film weaves together the past and the present to better understand Lebanon’s history and status today.
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Hawa
Najiba Noori and Rasul Noori
Forty years after her arranged marriage as a child, Hawa is eager to finally begin an independent life and to be literate. However, with the return of the Taliban to power—her dreams and those of her daughter and granddaughter are shattered.
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Naseem, Fight With Grace
Ana Naomi De Sousa
The “people’s history” of British-Yemeni featherweight boxer Naseem Hamed, who became a world champion in 1995. Derided by English commentators and journalists as arrogant and flashy—he was celebrated and lionised from Sheffield to Sanaa.
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Son of the Streets
Mohammed Almughanni
Against all odds, a stateless Palestinian child in a Beirut refugee camp embarks on a courageous journey for recognition, education, and a brighter future in ‘Son of the Streets’.
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The Myth of Mahmoud
Mayar Hamdan and Shaima Al Tamimi
Mayar captures the lives of her Palestinian family, who made Doha their home 60 years ago. Led by her mother, Amal, who is approaching retirement, they once again grapple with the dilemma of moving or fighting to remain.
In Production / Feature Documentary or Essay
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Khartoum
Rawia Alhaq, Anas Saeed, Timmea Ahmed, Ibrahim Ahmad (Snoopy)
A street boy, a civil servant, a tea lady, and a medic—four lives weave together in peace and war in this creative documentary set in the city of Khartoum, Sudan.
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Niemeyer 4 Ever
Aurélia Makdessi
The International Fair, created by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, is officially closed to the public. Nevertheless, in this urban, offbeat and human tale, Spark, Rana, Maher and Mona do everything to rehabilitate the imagined utopia.
Qumra Series
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All About Adam
Mehdi Hmili
An exploration of the tumultuous life of Adam Mejri, also known as the “Tunisian Bernard Madoff”, who is the most reviled figure in the country due to his controversial actions.
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Beautiful Things
Basel Owies
An over-achieving university student is forced into a life of crime to protect her family and advance her legitimate political aspirations.
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Dyouf
Saleh Saadi
A family of five runs a guesthouse in their Bedouin village in Occupied Palestine while living in a turmoil of relations, identity, and career.
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Hazawi
Latifa Al Darwish and Abdulaziz Yousef
An adventure animation series that takes place in the late 1980s, featuring a magical world full of Jinn creatures and two children.
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The Blue Wedding
Samia Dzaïr
In France, an Algerian family celebrates the union of their eldest son with a young woman from their community. The next morning, he is found dead in their wedding bed.
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Rabet
Aya Al Blouchi and Basel Owies
An anthology series of Middle Eastern crime stories that explore the complex ironies of human morality involving members of a tragically absurd society they can’t escape.
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My Sister and I
Zaid Hamdan and Lucy DerTavitian
Two Saudi sisters use education to escape crushing poverty and patriarchy. Their imperfect family is a microcosm for a country grappling with the changes of a rapidly growing economy which propels modernity.
Development / Shorts
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Becoming a Vampire
Kummam Al-Maadeed and Abeer Al-Kubaisi
Sara struggles with her draining corporate job and the social pressure from her mother. But when a vampire bites her—she finds an opportunity to reclaim her autonomy and embrace her freedom.
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Before the Day Breaks
Amal Al-Muftah
Family, work, and financial pressures boil over when Nour, a young truck driver, encounters an obstacle while delivering an urgent, unusual shipment to Qatar.
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Sundial
Atheel Elmalik
Against the backdrop of an intensifying war, a family struggles with an impossible decision about whether to stay or leave. Without access to electricity, Najma has to rely on the sun to find the right time to see Ziyad.
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The Land Was Well Past its Zenith
Rita Mahfouz
What if cameras were fashioned outside the bounds of linear perspective? How would an altered photographic representation depict distressed spaces? This non-perspectival ‘documentation’ of Beirut depicts the forces that regulate the city following the recent events of 2019-20.
In Production / Shorts
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Autumn
Adnan Nassari and Aisha Al-Jaidah
Autumn: a romantic tragedy of the captivity of ambitious thoughts under short roofs.
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La Nuit a Peine
Wiame Haddad
In what appears to be a Palestinian refugee camp, we find ourselves somewhere between 1982 and the present day in a fictionalised documentary reconstruction depicting the eve of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon.
Work In Progress / Shorts
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I Lay to Wait for You to Sleep
Ali Al Hajri
Following a serious car accident, a man embarks on a desert odyssey in search of his requiem.
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I Wished for Solitude
Hamad Alfayhani
Bader, a young man, struggles with the news that he is losing his face.
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Can You See Me?
Dhoha Abdelsattar
A lonely woman trapped in the cycle of a mundane life spirals into emotional turmoil until she is forced to confront herself.
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Theatre of Dreams
Fatma Al-Ghanim
The captain of the first-ever Qatari Women’s Football Team grapples with the painful hidden costs that come with being part of the pioneering generation of women who broke through cultural taboos in pursuit of their footballing passion and dreams.
