DUBAI: Here is the second 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.  

‘Hijra’ 

Director: Shahad Ameen 

Starring: Khairiya Nazmi, Lamar Feddan, Nawaf Al-Dhufairi 

“It’s a story of women navigating who they are, and understanding what freedom means to them. It’s about the pilgrimage we make toward ourselves, and the cost of that journey.” That’s how the Saudi filmmaker described her film to Arab News in September, after “Hijra” screened at the Venice Film Festival. Set against the backdrop of the Hajj, the film follows a grandmother and her two granddaughters as the travel from Taif to Makkah. When the eldest girl goes missing, “the two remaining women travel north to find her, with their search highlighting the deep cultural and generational bonds between Saudi women,” the festival synopsis states.  

“There’s a softness in (Saudi) culture that’s often missed,” Ameen told Arab News. “I hope people feel the beauty in our resilience, and the complexity of our choices.” 

‘Barni’ 

Director: Mohammed Sheikh 

Starring: Salma Ahmed, Hamza Mohamoud, Fouad Hassan 

The Somali filmmaker’s debut feature was based on memories from his own community. It tells the story of 18-year-old Amina, who, along with her friends Hirsi and Geedi, goes in search of her nine-year-old sister — Barni — who disappeared during a wedding celebration. Sheikh’s work is partly funded by the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Minnesota (where Sheikh lives), whose president Eleanor Savage told MPR News that the admissions panel were “so taken with (Sheikh’s) imagery, the way he translates that cinematically. They felt like it was very poetic. It’s very clear that he has such a strong, clear voice as a filmmaker.” 

‘A Sad and Beautiful World’ 

Director: Cyril Aris 

Starring: Mounia Akl, Hasan Akil, Julia Kassar 

Aris’ debut feature will be Lebanon’s entry for the Oscars this year. Akl and Akil star as Yasmina and Nino, former childhood sweethearts who are reunited in their late twenties after years apart. The “real genesis” of the film, Aris told Deadline, “was the question of whether or not it’s still worth bringing children into the world today.” He continued: “In Lebanon, every generation has their own trauma associated with the country and the region. And, at some point, it really makes you wonder if there’s any hopeful future … in Lebanon. At the same time, it’s a place we’re all very deeply attached to, and we are very much in love with.” 

‘Allah is Not Obliged’ 

Director: Zaven Najjar 

Voice cast: Sk07, Thomas Ngijol, Marc Zinga 

The French director’s animation is an adaptation of Ahmadou Korouma’s 2000 novel about the journey of Birahima, a 10-year-old orphan from Guinea, across West Africa as he tries to reach his aunt in Liberia. Along the way, he becomes a child soldier. “Being from a family of Armenians from Syria and Lebanon, this story deeply resonated with ones I heard as a teenager; stories of the Lebanese war that were sometimes trivial things tinted with humor and irony, but also deeply tragic recollections intertwined with political and historical dimensions,” Najjar told Variety in June. 

‘All That’s Left of You’ 

Director: Cherien Dabis 

Starring: Saleh Bakri, Cherien Dabis, Adam Bakri 

The Palestinian-American filmmaker’s family saga spans 75 years. It begins in the late Eighties in the occupied West Bank, where we meet Noor — a boy joining a protest against Israeli soldiers. We then go back in time to learn the story of Noor’s grandfather, Sharif, during the Nakba of 1948. “As the years go by and the trauma festers, the film grows into something … surprising, beautifully textured and deeply moving,” film critic Adrian Horton wrote in The Guardian, calling the movie a “propulsive, multifaceted drama with a fraught, ardent sense of place, and (a) heart-on-its-sleeve, direct plea for recognition.” 

‘Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream’ 

Director: Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji 

Starring: Youssef Husham Al-Thahabi, Hussein Raad Zuwayr 

Nine-year-old Chum-Chum — an orphan on the streets of Baghdad — believes the Tigris River hides a gate to the underworld, where he can be reunited with his parents. His 13-year-old friend and fellow orphan, Moody, dreams of escaping to the Netherlands, but in trying to make the money to do so, he becomes tangled up in a world of crime and violence.  

‘Lost Land’ 

Director: Akio Fujimoto 

Starring: Shomira Rias Uddin, Muhammad Shofik Rias Uddin 

The Japanese director has made what is billed by RSIFF as the “first-ever Rohingya-language feature … a haunting, intimate portrait of two siblings fleeing persecution in Myanmar.” Nine-year-old Somira and four-year-old Shafi are attempting to reach Malaysia, where their uncle lives. Fujimoto spent 12 years working in Myanmar, where any mention of the Rohingya is frowned on. “That silence became a burden to me and led me to this film,” he wrote in his director’s statement for the Venice Film Festival.  

‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit’ 

Director: Shahram Mokri 

Starring: Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammai, Kibriyo Dilyobova 

Iranian filmmaker Mokri’s twisty multi-layered mystery will represent Tajikistan at the Oscars this year. At its heart is Sarah, who has been injured in a car crash and is swathed in bandages. She suspects the crash was no accident. Meanwhile, on a film set, a prop master is concerned about a supposedly fake gun and an actress is dreaming of her big break. Their fates are all intertwined, as Mokri presents a film within a film within a film.