The Middle Eastern Films Screening at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

From the Arab world to Utah

You don’t need to brave the cold in Salt Lake City to catch the best of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, especially those Middle Eastern films. The 41st edition of the iconic festival, running through Feb. 2, has something for everyone—whether you’re there in person or streaming from the comfort of your couch. Once again, Sundance sets itself apart as the only major film festival offering a hybrid format, giving cinephiles everywhere a chance to experience the bold stories that define the festival.

This year, there is a plethora of Arab features, shorts, and documentaries making waves at 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Many of these Middle Eastern films mark their creators’ debuts. Here’s what to keep an eye on:

‘All That’s Left of You’

Middle Eastern Films from palestine

Palestinian-American Emmy nominee Cherien Dabis unpacks generational trauma in All That’s Left of You. After a West Bank protest ends in violence, a mother retraces the steps that led her son there, starting with his grandfather’s forced displacement.

‘Brides’

Nadia Fall makes her directorial debut with Brides, a raw coming-of-age tale that follows two teenage girls, Doe and Muna, as they break away from the UK and land in Syria, chasing a sense of self. Tackling themes of alienation, suffocating family dynamics, and the hunger for independence, the film stars Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in standout roles. Don’t miss this gripping drama at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it will be screened five times.

‘Where the Wind Comes From’

tunisian movie at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Tunisian filmmaker Amel Guellaty’s Where the Wind Comes From follows a couple on a road trip through southern Tunisia, seeking escape and solace amid a barren, sunlit backdrop. Starring Eya Bellagha and Slim Baccar, this four-time screening at Sundance is a visceral ode to love and existential detours.

‘Coexistence, My Ass!’

lebanese movie at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Canadian-Lebanese filmmaker Amber Fares teams up with comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi in this biting documentary that dismantles the notion of “coexistence” with humor, wit, and unflinching candor. Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Shuster-Eliassi’s one-woman show is at the heart of this five-time screening, promising to make you laugh, wince, and think—sometimes all at once.

‘Khartoum’

Khartoum Middle Eastern films at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Sudanese director Anas Saeed blends  raw footage and surreal green-screen reenactments to tell the harrowing story of five people fleeing Khartoum in the wake of war. From a tea lady to a resistance volunteer, each character reconstructs their survival amid chaos. Khartoum screens four times at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, inviting viewers into a deeply personal retelling of displacement.

‘Deadlock’

deadlock film at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

French-Algerian duo Lucien Beucher and Mahdi Boucif collaborate on Deadlock, a short film that zeroes in on two Algerian men reflecting on the exodus of their friends and their own uncertain futures. Part of the Documentary Short Film Programme, Deadlock is intimate, poignant, and unapologetically raw.

‘The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing’

Greek-Lebanese filmmaker Theo Panagopoulos reclaims fragments of Palestinian wildflower archives to explore displacement and memory in The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing. Rooted in academia and activism, this short merges the poetic with the political, screening four times as part of the Short Film Programme 2.

‘Almost Certainly False’

Middle Eastern films at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

The Cansu Baydar-directed short film centers on the lives of Syrian siblings Hanna and Nader as they navigate a new, uncertain existence in Istanbul’s forgotten corners. Screening as part of Short Film Programme 3, the Turkish film captures resilience and tenderness in equal measure.

 

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