African & Middle Eastern
Alice has precious few (but building) films from the Middle East and even fewer from the vast continent of Africa.
Middle Eastern films are often highly politicised, bringing subjects to the attention of audiences that would otherwise know little about them. Film makers are often dealing with various forms of political and social oppression and even armed conflicts to bring their stories to light. Exotic scenery, allegorical storytelling and close-up exposure to cultural norms, so different from our own, bring a kind of immersion only rivalled by being there.
To find a title from a specific country use the By Country link on the left.
Pictured: A Time for Drunken Horses
The Salesman (2016)
7.8/10
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Babak Karimi, Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini
Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and his wife Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are actors in an amateur Tehran production of Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman. When... Read more
The Source (2011)
7.3/10
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Leila Bekhti, Saleh Bakri, Hafsia Herzi, Biyouna , Sabrina Ouazani,...
A.k.a. "La source des femmes". Romanian-born filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu ("The Concert") directed and co-wrote this 'battle of the sexes' comedy drama s... Read more
The White Masai (2005)
Director: Hermine Huntgeburth
Starring: Nina Hoss, Jacky Ido, Katja Flint, Antonio Prester
A truly incredible love story based on Corinne Hofmann's autobiography about her journey to Kenya and her culture-shock romance with a Masai warrior.... Read more
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
7.6/10
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
A few people arrive from Tehran for a short stay at Siah Dareh, a village in Iranian Kurdistan. The locals do not know why they are there. The strange... Read more
Theeb (2014)
7.2/10
In the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming-of-age as he embarks on a perilous dese... Read more
This is Not a Film (2011)
7.5/10
Director: Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Starring: Jafar Panahi
This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-t... Read more
Three Monkeys (2008)
7.4/10
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Starring: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Ercan Kesal
Near the Bosporus, Eyüp and Hacer live in a modest flat with their son Ismail, in his twenties, who's doing poorly in his studies. Few words pass betw... Read more
Timbuktu (2014)
7.2/10
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Starring: Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri
We are the guardians of all deeds since we arrived in this territory. So states one of the self-described jihadists who, with his colleagues and som... Read more
Times and Winds ( Bes Vakit ) (2006)
7.4/10
Director: Reha Erdem
Starring: Ozkan Ozen, Ali Bey Iscan
This award-winning and critically acclaimed film follows the lives of three friends on the verge of adolescence in a remote Turkish mountain village.... Read more
Tsotsi (2005)
7.3/10
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Zenzo Ngqobe, Z...
Tsotsi, (a slang word for 'thug'), is a Johannesberg delinquent whose life has been a series of abandonments and abuse, resulting in a young man alrea... Read more