DUBAI: Here is the first half of our rundown of the films in competition at this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, which runs from Dec. 4-13.

‘Yunan’ 

Director: Ameer Fakher Eldin

Starring: George Khabbaz, Hanna Schygulla, Ali Suliman 

The second in Syrian filmmaker Fakher Eldin’s intended trilogy about exile follows Munir, a Syrian writer living in Germany troubled by the mental burden of his displacement. He travels to some remote low-lying islands, where he contemplates suicide. “The character emerged from a deep exploration of the human condition,” Fakher Eldin told Arab News in April. “I wanted to explore this quiet battle that we face within ourselves. I come from the occupied Golan Heights. I didn’t flee because of war or a national crisis — the border was displaced, leaving me displaced. So I grew up in exile without being forced to leave … My approach was to try to anatomize the mind of the displaced person. I entered this world by connecting to the universal aspects of loss and disillusionment and the search for meaning.” 

‘Two Seasons, Two Strangers’ 

Director: Sho Miyake 

Starring: Shim Eun-Kyung, Yuumi Kawai, Shinichi Tsutsumi 

The Japanese director won top prize at the Locarno Film Festival for this delicate drama based on two works by the seminal manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge: “Mr. Ben and His Igloo” and “A View of the Seaside.” Miyake presents his tale as a film within a film. The former tells the story of Natsuo and Nagisa, two loners looking for connection in a small seaside town. That film is written by Li, a Japan-based Korean filmmaker expressing many of her own feelings of being adrift through her characters. She decides she needs to travel to “get away from words” for a while and heads to a remote mountain inn, where she meets cynical divorcé Benzo. 

‘Truck Mama’ 

Director: Zippy Nyaruri 

Starring: Evaline Wambua Mutuku 

It took Kenyan filmmaker Nyaruri several years to get the funding together to finish this documentary which follows Eva, a single mother who works as a long-haul truck driver. Eva must navigate not only her male-dominated profession, but the notoriously dangerous highways of East Africa to provide for her family. And when her truck breaks down on the way from Kenya to Sudan, the synopsis states, “Eva needs all the strength she can muster and is even forced to rethink her future.” 

‘Roqia’ 

Director: Yanis Koussim 

Starring: Ali Namous, Akram Djeghim, Mostefa Djadjam 

In “Roqia” the Algerian filmmaker confronts the trauma of his youth during Algeria’s Black Decade — the civil war that lasted from 1992 until 2002. No surprise that “Roqia” is a horror film, then. The film begins in 1993. Ahmed is recovering from a car crash that has left him with amnesia. His home village and even his family feel unfamiliar to him. And he doesn’t know why his right index finger is missing. In the film’s present-day timeline, we meet an old Muslim exorcist also missing his right index finger. “When you don’t fix the traumas Algerians have lived through, perhaps what caused this trauma can come back — not as a threat, but in the background,” Koussim told GQ Middle East in a recent interview. “We have to work on this trauma. ‘Roqia’ is not a way of finding the solution, but exposing the problem.” 

‘The World of Love’ 

Director: Yoon Ga-Eun 

Starring: Seo Su-Bin, Chang Hyae-Jin, Kim Jeong-Sik 

The Korean filmmaker’s drama follows Lee Jooin, a 17-year-old high school student whose angry outburst has unexpected repercussions for those around her, and for Jooin herself. Having previously made two “first-person” features “where the protagonist appeared in every scene,” Yoon told Variety that her latest “attempted a method of observing characters from a distance: that is, a third-person perspective. I tried to construct what other characters were doing when the protagonist was doing something, and how these things influenced each other, even though they were not visible to one another.” 

‘The Stories’ 

Director: Abu Bakr Shawky 

Starring: Amir El-Masry, Nelly Karim, Valerie Pachner 

Described by RSIFF as “a vivid and authentic tribute to Egypt,” Shawky’s latest feature is inspired by the relationship between his Egyptian father and Austrian mother — a relationship they began as international pen pals back in the Sixties (his parents actually have a cameo in the movie). “It’s about worlds colliding. It’s about world’s meeting,” Shawky told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s about little victories in life, and little people trying to do big things.” 

‘Sink’ 

Director: Zain Duraie 

Starring: Clara Khoury, Mohammad Nizar, Wissam Tobeileh 

The Jordanian director’s debut feature was described by the Toronto International Film Festival as “a magnificent portrait of a mother struggling with her (teenage) son’s unravelling mental state.” While Basil’s behavior sees him expelled from school and ostracized by his social circle, his mother Nadia refuses to give up on him. 

‘Nighttime Sounds’ 

Director: Zhang Zhongchen 

Starring: Aline Chen, Gu Hanru, Li Yanxi 

The self-taught Chinese director’s film won accolades in his homeland for its blend of surrealism, magical realism and poetry. Eight-year-old Qing lives with her mother in a quiet rural village. Her father works in a distant city. One morning, Qing meets a “ghostly child” seeking its missing mother. “Through dreamlike imagery and a haunting soundscape … Zhongchen weaves a powerful tale of memory, longing, and the silence passed from one generation of women to the next,” the festival synopsis reads.