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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 81 movies from DFI
After a Palestinian teen gets swept up into a West Bank protest, his mother recounts the family story of hope, courage and relentless struggle that led to this fateful moment.
Sep 2025
Year 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
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
In New York, a Pakistani native finds that his American Dream has collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Apr 2013
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
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
An assistant professor at a medical college balances her roles as a professional, a mother and a teacher. Her life changes once she witnesses an unexpected incident involving a female student.
Nov 2021
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
Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
Dec 2019
After hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, a Scottish woman begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.
Sep 2021
Fresh out of university, a Turkish young man with literary aspirations returns to his home village and starts scraping together money to publish his book. While trying to reconnect with his old friends and environment; his uncertainty, existential struggle and his father’s gambling addiction bring him grave difficulties.
Jun 2018
The story follows a group of birds on a journey where they try to find a better life for themselves and the ones they love.
May 2017
A young Palestinian living in a refugee camp in 1949 struggles to escape the imminent death when him and his little brother heedlessly enter a minefield.
Nov 2012
From the Barents Sea, a chill wind seems to blow constantly across a semi-deserted town at the edge of the world. Nevertheless, a little community holds out here. In a flawlessly filmed portrait of this extraordinary place, the theme linking the residents is their determination to chart their own course. Bardak was a marine, but his garrison broke up and his comrades sought a better life elsewhere. He stayed behind among the many empty buildings that are slowly but surely being consumed by the elements. Meanwhile, Dima, a young poacher, flouts as many rules as he can, but gives friendly directions to lost tourists and reads lovingly to his little daughter. Ferryman Alexander is locked in a silent generational battle with his teenage daughter Masha; her eyes are on the outside world. Further along, a little team of ships from the Second World War turns up, and a woman steadfastly runs a weather station.
Nov 2019
Midi Z visits his oncle who works as a jade miner.
Feb 2016
An elderly goat herder falls victim to a scam promising long-awaited reparations for her father's WWII service. Structured as a series of recurring visual 'variations', Variations on a Theme is a portrait of endurance and loss.
May 2026
A small town in present-day Bulgaria. A mother and her two daughters are struggling to survive. The dreamy and distracted younger daughter often invents stories in order to make life more interesting. Unwittingly, she eventually gets caught in the trap of her own lies and destroys her older sister's well-ordered materialistic world. Meanwhile, the two sisters find out the truth about their mother
Oct 2020
Somewhere in Sweden, a gigantic dumpster breaks free from a heavy chain suspended underneath a big helicopter. The dumpster hits the ground with a formidable crash and the garbage spouts out into the surroundings. Meanwhile, an aging Roma woman wakes up in her house with an extremely strong desire to get her old wall clock back.
Nov 2015
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
Mehdia, an Ethiopian migrant domestic worker in Beirut, loves Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who struggles to survive dealing in second-hand metal scraps, while affected by a mysterious physical condition related to shrapnel wounds exposure during the war. Their love story seems to have no future, but since they have nothing, they can lose nothing. When the opportunity presents itself, they leave Beirut in a hopeful and desperate get-away while Ahmed’s physical condition gets worse and worse.
Apr 2023