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
Red Dust (2004)
6.9/10
Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jamie Bartlett, Marius Weyers
Set against the backdrop of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hearings, Hilary Swank is an ex-pat South African practising law in the... Read more
Footnote (2011)
7.1/10
Director: Joseph Cedar
Starring: Nevo Kimchi, Lior Ashkenazi, Shlomo Bar Aba, Daniel Markovich, Alisa Rosen, Alma...
A.k.a. "Hearat Shulayim". Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba) and his son Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi) are both Talmud scholars who teach at the Hebrew Univer... Read more
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U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha (2005)
Director: Mark Dornford-May
Starring: Pauline Malefane, Andile Tshoni, Lungelwa Blou, Zweilungile Sidloyi, Andries Mba...
A vibrant and cinematic re-telling of Bizet's famous opera, set in modern South Africa, and starring the sublime Pauline Malefane as the eponymous cig... Read more
Le Grand Voyage (2004)
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Starring: Jacky Nercessian, Nicolas Cazale, Mohamed Majd
A middle-aged man of Moroccan descent (Mohamed Majd) embarks on a long journey from southern France to Mecca -- but for this crusade, he unexpectedly... Read more
Under the Shadow (2015)
6.9/10
Director: Babak Anvari
Starring: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi
Infused with autobiographical elements, Babak Anvaris debut feature is a terrifying allegory of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, a now often overlooked con... Read more
Cupcakes (2013)
6/10
Director: Eytan Fox
Starring: Anat Waxman, Yael Bar-Zohar, Ofer Shechter, Dana Ivgy, Efrat Dor, Keren Berger
A.k.a. "Bananot" ("Bananas"). When a group of best friends in Tel Aviv gather to watch Universong, they are less than impressed by the official Israel... Read more
Gaia (2021)
5.6/10
An injured forest ranger on a routine mission is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as t... Read more
The Match (2020)
6/10
Starring: Franco Nero, Caspar Phillipson, Armand Assante
Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Ado... Read more
Incendies (Blu-ray) (2011)
8.3/10
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Remy Girard, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulan, Lubna Azabal, Maxim Gaudette
In the highly-acclaimed suspense thriller 'Incendies', a mothers dying wish creates a painful puzzle her children are forced to solve. At the reading... Read more
Love and Dance (2006)
4.9/10
Director: Eitan Anner
Starring: Vladimir Volov, Avi Kushnir, Oksana Korostyshevskaya, Valeria Voevodin, Jenya Do...
Just on the cusp of puberty, Chen is also caught between two cultures. Equally attuned to his beautiful Russian mother's love of culture and the arts,... Read more