Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival
Mizna will present the 14th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival September 26-29, 2019 at St. Anthony Main Theatre. Over its fourteen editions, our festival has created a necessary space in the Twin Cities for Arab and Muslim filmmakers to tell their stories in beautiful and innovative ways.
The Arab Film Fest takes place at MSP Film Society's Screen 3 at St. Anthony Main, screening more than thirty contemporary films from Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as those from local Arab filmmakers. For the fourth year, we will be awarding juried prizes for films in the categories of Best Narrative, Best Documentary, and Best Short, and will continue the Best Audience Award based on audience votes.
Individual Tickets | |
General Admission | $12.00 |
Members | $10.00 |
Students | $10.00 |
Seniors | $10.00 |
PURCHASE A PASS OR PACK |
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BUY ALL-ACCESS PASS | BUY 6-PACK | BUY 3-PACK |
Mizna will thank all of our supporters who purchase all-access passes to the 2019 TCAFF with a free 1-year subscription to our literary journal, Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America!
6 and 3-Packs cannot be redeemed for Opening Night tickets.
It Must Be Heaven | Thursday, September 26 at 7:00pm |
aKasha | Friday, September 27 at 11:00am |
Yara | Friday, September 27 at 1:00pm |
Bezness as Usual | Friday, September 27 at 3:00pm |
Weldi | Friday, September 27 at 5:00pm |
Western Arabs | Friday, September 27 at 7:00pm |
Dreamaway | Friday, September 27 at 9:15pm |
Sudanese Shorts | Saturday, September 28 at 11:00am |
Tiny Souls | Saturday, September 28 at 12:25pm |
Hamada | Saturday, September 28 at 2:10pm |
Local(ish): 5 Short Films | Saturday, September 28 at 4:00pm |
Erased,_Ascent of the Invisible | Saturday, September 28 at 5:45pm |
It Must Be Heaven | Saturday, September 28 at 7:30pm |
Dachra | Saturday, September 28 at 9:30pm |
Rosalind Nashashibi Retrospective | Sunday, September 29 at 11:00am |
Sisters, Mothers, Friends, Lovers: A Collection of Shorts | Sunday, September 29 at 12:30pm |
When Arabs Danced | Sunday, September 29 at 2:10pm |
Wajd - Songs of Separation | Sunday, September 29 at 3:55pm |
aKasha | Sunday, September 29 at 5:45pm |
EXT. Night | Sunday, September 29 at 7:40pm |
FILM LINEUP
aKasha
Friday, September 27 at 11:00am & Sunday, September 29 at 5:45pm
Director: hajooj kuka | Fiction Feature | Sudan, South Africa, Qatar, Germany | 2018
Adnan is a Sudanese revolutionary who is considered a war hero. His love for his AK-47 rifle is equalled only by his feelings for Lina, his long-suffering sweetheart. When Adnan is late to return to his military unit after...
READ MOREBezness As Usual
Friday, September 27 at 3:00pm
Director: Alex Pitstra | Documentary | Netherlands, Tunisia | 2016
Filmmaker Alex Pitstra has lived his life pulled between cultures. Raised in Holland by his mother, Anneke, he longed to know more about Mohsen, his absent Tunisian father...
READ MOREDachra
Saturday, September 28 at 9:30pm
Director: Abdelhamid Bouchnak | Fiction | Tunisia | 2018
Set against the backdrop of contemporary Tunisia, Dachra revolves around Yasmin, a journalism student, and her two classmates. They set out on a university assignment to solve the cold case of Mongia, a woman found mutilated twenty-five years ago...
READ MOREDreamaway
Friday, September 27 at 9:15pm
Director: Marouan Omara, Johanna Domke | Documentary | Egypt | 2018
Dreamaway follows a group of young workers in a luxury hotel compound, holding onto the town despite the lack of tourists. Returning home is not an option, as they have absorbed the liberal lifestyle and experienced the difficulty of fitting...
READ MOREErased,__Ascent of the Invisible
Saturday, September 28 at 5:45pm
Director: Ghassan Halwani | Documentary | Lebanon | 2018
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know. He has disappeared since. Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was...
READ MOREEXT. Night
Sunday, September 29 at 7:40pm
Director: Ahmad Abdalla | Fiction | Egypt | 2018
Marginalized film director Moe spends an unplanned evening with two companions, taxi driver Mustafa and prostitute Toutou, who live about a metro stop away from him, yet who seem socioeconomic worlds apart from the career frustrated director.
READ MOREHamada
Saturday, September 28 at 2:10pm
Director: Eloy Domínguez Serén | Documentary | Western Sahara | 2018
A minefield and the world’s second largest military wall separate Sidahmed, Zaara, and Taher from their homeland that they only know from their parents’ stories. They are Sahrawis, one of the world’s most forgotten people...
READ MOREIt Must Be Heaven
Thursday, September 26 at 7:00pm & Saturday, September 28 at 7:30pm
Director: Elia Suleiman | Fiction | Palestine, France, USA | 2019
ES escapes from Palestine seeking an alternative homeland, only to find that Palestine is trailing behind him. The promise of a new life turns into a comedy of errors: however far he travels, from Paris to New York, something always...
READ MORELocal(ish): 5 Short Films + Discussions With Filmmakers
Saturday, September 28 at 4:00pm
Shorts Program
From the sweet and personal to the fascinatingly bizarre, these 5 films from local and regional filmmakers reveal a spectrum of stories and very different ways of telling them...
READ MORERosalind Nashashibi Retrospective
Sunday, September 29 at 11:00am
Director: Rosalind Nashashibi | Experimental | Palestine, UK, Egypt
A selection of five beautiful experimental films from Palestinian English artist Rosalind Nashashibi. Described as having “the depth and precision of a poet. Her images, and the ideas they carry...
READ MORESisters, Mothers, Friends, Lovers: A Collection of Shorts
Sunday, September 29 at 12:30pm
Shorts Program | Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, USA, Egypt, Lebanon
Six short films that dive into the hearts of our deepest relationships.
READ MORESudanese Shorts
Saturday, September 28 at 11:00am
Shorts Program | Sudan, Yemen
During the late ’70s and early ’80s, a group of filmmakers at the Sudanese Department of Culture issued a periodical named Cinema. In April 1989, they founded the Sudanese Film Group...
READ MORETiny Souls
Saturday, September 28 at 12:25pm
Director: Dina Naser | Documentary | Syria, Jordan | 2019
Marwa, her mother, and her siblings are stranded in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp after escaping war in Syria in 2012. Marwa is nine. Her concerns revolve around school, and her interests around playtime. Four months into camp life, Marwa is...
READ MOREWajd - Songs of Separation
Sunday, September 29 at 3:55pm
Director: Amar Chebib | Documentary | Syria, Turkey | 2018
Inspired by the traditional music of Syria, director Amar Chebib traveled to Aleppo in 2010. Six months later, the revolution began. Moved by the harrowing experiences of the friends he made, Wajd shares the stories of three musicians turned refugees...
READ MOREWeldi (Dear Son)
Friday, September 27 at 5:00pm
Director: Mohamed Ben Attia | Fiction | Tunisia | 2018
Riadh is about to retire from his work as a forklift operator at the port of Tunis. The life he shares with his wife Nazli revolves around their only son Sami, who is preparing for his high school...
READ MOREWestern Arabs
Friday, September 27 at 7:00pm
Director: Omar Shargawi | Documentary | Palestine, Denmark | 2019
Western Arabs is a brutally intimate portrait that follows Omar Shargawi’s Danish Palestinian family over twelve years. Focusing on his troubled relationship with his father, Munir—who opens himself up to intense scrutiny—Omar dives deeply into the...
READ MOREWhen Arabs Danced
Sunday, September 29 at 2:10pm
Director: Jawad Rhalib | Documentary | Arabic, French, Dutch, English | 2018
This new work by director Jawad Rhalib shines a light on aspects of Arab culture that western and Middle Eastern mainstream media alike seem to have forgotten: its love for dance, music, literature, philosophy, and science.
READ MORE