Browse 76 movies from DFI
1936. As villages across Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is relentless. With rising numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe and some arriving with nefarious Zionist-colonial ambitions, and the Palestinian population uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year dominion, all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.
Oct 2025
In a Japan of the near future, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer face choices of life and death.
Jun 2022
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.
Sep 2014
In the Occupied West Bank of the 1980s, a Palestinian teenager is swept into a protest that changes the course of his family's life. Reeling from its aftermath, his mother, Hanan, shares the story that led them to that fateful moment. Spanning seven decades, this epic drama traces the hopes and heartaches of one uprooted family, revealing not only the scars of displacement, but the unbreakable spirit of survival.
Sep 2025
Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life.
Jun 2016
The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene. Weaving together their lives on and off the track, SPEED SISTERS takes you on a surprising journey into the drive to go further and faster than anyone thought you could.
Jun 2015
Kym, an Australian tourist, decides to travel to Bosnia. Her guidebook leads her to Višegrad, a small town steeped in history, on the border of Bosnia and Serbia. After a night of insomnia in the 'romantic' Hotel Vilina Vlas, Kym discovers what happened there during the war. She can no longer be an ordinary tourist and her life will never be the same again.
Oct 2013
Samnang, 20, faces the demolition of his lifelong home in Phnom Penh and the pressures from family, friends, and neighbors which arise and intersect in this moment of sudden change.
Dec 2021
A middle-class family's fate becomes intertwined with their only son's enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China, putting unspoken secrets, unmet expectations, and untended emotions under the microscope.
Sep 2024
In a Himalayan polyandrous village in Nepal, newly married and pregnant Pema tries to make the best of her new life. But soon, her first husband Tashi vanishes on the trade route to Lhasa. Accompanied by her monk de facto husband, Karma, she embarks on a journey into the unforgiving wilderness to find him, evolving into a quest of self discovery and liberation.
Aicha, a Tunisian mother gifted with prophetic dreams, lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband Brahim and young son Adam. The family lives in anguish after the departure of the eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of war. Months later, Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a pregnant wife in tow. Mehdi's arrival triggers old wounds and a darkness that threatens to consume the entire village.
Nov 2024
Fresh out of university, a Turkish young man with literary aspirations returns to his home village, and to his father, a debt-ridden man with a gambling problem.
Jun 2018
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Dec 2011
Mohammed Assaf, an aspiring musician living in Gaza, sets a seemingly impossible goal: to compete on the program "Arab Idol."
Jan 2016
In Noor Ahmad Yaqub’s 1 Minnute Film a grandfather tells his granddaughter about the Qatar he grew up in many years ago. As he tells the story, the young girl imagine s what that world must have been like back then
Jul 2012
Lila is an 18-year-old girl living in Brest, France. She recently decided to wear a veil, to the dismay of her family. After an argument with her boyfriend, Lila does not feel like celebrating Eid at home and decides to slip away.
Oct 2022
Set in the Arabian Desert of 1916, the film follows Theeb, a young Bedouin boy, and his brother Hussein as they leave the safety of their tribe to venture on a treacherous journey at the dawn of the Great Revolt. If Theeb is to survive he must quickly learn about adulthood, trust and betrayal.
Oct 2014
In Taiwan, as the 2019 Hong Kong protests erupt across the strait, Zhong-Han, a young silent thug, leads a life divided between his work in a family restaurant and parties in the dark Taipei underworld. But when a questionable businessman wants to buy the restaurant, Zhong-Han is drawn into a whirlwind of events that confronts him with the corrupt power games of his country.
Jul 2025
Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
Dec 2019
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters. Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to the village and questions for the first time her mother’s bold choices, her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives.
Jan 2024