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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 4 movies from Red Sea Film Festival Foundation
After the fall of Assad’s regime, five survivors return to the former torture prison of Saidnaya to reenact what they experienced there during their incarceration. They reclaim their voices and bear witness for those who can no longer speak for themselves.
Feb 2026
Haroun is an old bachelor who has lived in Oran for several years. A retired civil servant, he leads a reclusive life until the day he meets Kamel in a bar—a journalist to whom he tells an incredible story dating back to 1942. He claims to be the brother of ‘the Arab’ killed in a story told in one of the most famous novels of the 20th century, ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. An Arab with an erased name: Moussa. Through anger, assertions, details, and confidences, Haroun finally convinces the journalist to listen to his story. His confession is a cry of freedom and distress—but above all, a cry of revolt: against an abusive mother, against a country that failed to achieve true independence, against a book, and against a famous French writer.
Nov 2026
Haya's convinced she's going to die before thirty, so she's living like it — loud, reckless, completely unfiltered, no brakes. Then one of her stunts goes wrong and lands her in the ER... right into Youssef. A heart surgeon. Calm, controlled, lives by a schedule. The human opposite of her in every way. Naturally, she decides he's her destiny. What follows is chaotic, funny, and a little bit ridiculous — neon nights, strange rituals, the kind of moments you can't plan for. Her countdown keeps ticking. His walls keep cracking. And somewhere in between, they both start remembering what it actually feels like to be alive. A love story for anyone who's ever felt like too much.
Jun 2026
In the slums of Jordan, power circulates through fear, favors, and violence. Boomah, a volatile street enforcer, survives on petty extortion and intimidation because for those at the bottom, crime is the only work that pays. Children move through the same streets she controls, selling goods, running messages, learning the rules of danger before adulthood; Boomah frightens them, exploits them, and sometimes protects them, caught between the instincts of a predator and the shadow of her own abandoned childhood. Surrounded by women struggling to shield their families, she carries a fractured relationship to motherhood, shaped by loss and survival rather than care. When a new, more organized criminal force begins to restructure the underground economy, independent lives like hers grow increasingly disposable, and Boomah is pushed to confront what it means to survive in a world where violence is labor, children inherit the streets, and motherhood is both a wound and a responsibility.