Twin Cities Arab Film Festival Archives - MSP Film

Opening Night: The Stories

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Opening Night: The Stories

Wednesday, Sep 23rd

20th Arab Film Festival Opening Night Wednesday, September 23 at 7:00 PM Visiting filmmaker: Abu Bakr Shawky ABOUT THE FILM During the tense summer of 1967, as war looms over Egypt, aspiring concert pianist Ahmed begins a pen-pal correspondence with an Austrian woman named Elizabeth. Based on the actual meeting of director Abu Bakr Shawky’s […]

More Information

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival Archive

Surprise Screening + Advanced Preview

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Surprise Screening + Advanced Preview

Wednesday, Oct 1st

19th Arab Film Festival Surprise Screening + Advanced Preview Wednesday, October 1 at 7:00 PM Mizna is elated to present a special screening and advanced preview of a brand new feature film by an award–winning director! We would release the title, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise. Intrigued? Without giving too much away, we […]

More Information

Closing Night Program: East of Noon

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Closing Night Program: East of Noon

Sunday, Sep 28th

19th Arab Film Festival Closing Night SCREENS AT THE WALKER ART CENTER Sunday, September 28 at 7:00 PM Reserve Here Mizna’s 19th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival holds its closing day with a pair of special screenings and a closing reception co-presented with and at the Walker Art Center. This special closing night screening is […]

More Information

Reassemblage in the Relational Film: Screening + lecture by Nadia Shihab

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Reassemblage in the Relational Film: Screening + lecture by Nadia Shihab

Sunday, Sep 28th

19th Arab Film Festival SCREENS AT THE WALKER ART CENTER Sunday, September 28 at 3:30 PM Reserve Here Mizna’s 19th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival holds its closing day with a pair of special screenings and a closing reception co-presented with and at the Walker Art Center. In her lecture performance, Reassemblage in the Relational […]

More Information

A State of Passion

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

A State of Passion

Sunday, Sep 28th

19th Arab Film Festival Sunday, September 28 at 1:00 PM ABOUT THE FILM This harrowing documentary depicts the story of British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, as he recounts his experiences working under constant bombardment in Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals. The current genocide in Gaza marks Abu Sittah’s sixth and most […]

More Information

All That’s Left of You

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

All That’s Left of You

Saturday, Sep 27th

19th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 27 at 7:30 PM ABOUT THE FILM In the West Bank, in 1988, a Palestinian teenager eagerly joins local protests against the Israeli occupation, which quickly becomes violent. However, before we learn his fate, his mother turns to the camera to tell his story, one that traces the experiences […]

More Information

Shapes of Normal Human Beings + Discussion

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Shapes of Normal Human Beings + Discussion

Saturday, Sep 27th

19th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 27 at 5:00 PM Post-screening Discussion with visiting filmmaker Jihad Saade. ABOUT THE FILM Shapes of Normal Human Beings is a documentary that challenges traditional modes of storytelling by following the threads that radiate from each of its encounters. As a small team of filmmaking friends embark on an […]

More Information

Shorts segment: Memories and Hauntings

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Shorts segment: Memories and Hauntings

Saturday, Sep 27th

19th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 27 at 2:45 PM Memory sustains. It anchors us and keeps us rooted and in touch with our histories, both personal and collective. But memory also haunts. The past can often manifest in ways that stifle our movements forward. The films in this segment make us reconsider the importance […]

More Information

Sudan, Remember Us + Discussion

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Sudan, Remember Us + Discussion

Saturday, Sep 27th

19th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 27 at 12:30 PM Post-screening Discussion with members from community and Decolonize Sudan. ABOUT THE FILM Sudan, Remember Us is a powerful portrait of a generation that chose poetry over silence and imagination over fear. Shajane, Maha, Muzamil, Khatab, and the voice of poet Chaikhoon form a cinematic chorus—young, […]

More Information

Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo + Chinatown Cowboy

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo + Chinatown Cowboy

Friday, Sep 26th

19th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 26 at 9:30 PM The screening of Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo (102 min) is preceded by Chinatown Cowboy (13 min). ABOUT Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo Dir. Khaled Mansour • Egypt, Saudi Arabia • 2024 • Arabic • 102 min Hassan, an Egyptian man in his twenties, embarks […]

More Information

Aïcha

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Aïcha

Friday, Sep 26th

19th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 26 at 7:00 PM ABOUT THE FILM Part thriller, part police procedural, and part coming-of-age story, Aïcha depicts the life of Aya, a young woman in her twenties who still lives with her parents in southern Tunisia. She feels exploited by her family and trapped in a life without […]

More Information

We Never Left + Like a Spiral

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

We Never Left + Like a Spiral

Friday, Sep 26th

19th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 26 at 4:30 PM The screening of We Never Left (83 min) is preceded by Like a Spiral (28 min). ABOUT We Never Left Dir. Loulwa Khoury • USA, Lebanon • 2024 • Arabic and English • 83 min When civil protests erupted in Lebanon on October 17, 2019, […]

More Information

Free Outdoor Screening: Divine Intervention

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Free Outdoor Screening: Divine Intervention

Thursday, Sep 25th

19th Arab Film Festival Thursday, September 25 at 8:00 PM • OUTDOOR SCREENING: UNDER THE 3RD AVENUE BRIDGE (across from The Main Cinema) **In case of rain, this screening will move indoors and take place in theater three at The Main Cinema.** 7:00 PM: Join us before the film for bites from the Baba’s Hummus […]

More Information

Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments + Discussion

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments + Discussion

Thursday, Sep 25th

19th Arab Film Festival Thursday, September 25 at 5:00 PM Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments presents films from local Arab and SWANA artists working across artistic and visual media. This segment includes finished films, collaborations, and works-in-progress by image-makers from our local(ish) community. A short discussion with the filmmakers will follow the screening. ABOUT THE […]

More Information

Opening Night Program: Thank You for Banking with Us + Discussion

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Opening Night Program: Thank You for Banking with Us + Discussion

Wednesday, Sep 24th

19th Arab Film Festival Opening Night Wednesday, September 24 at 7:00 PM (SOLD OUT) & 7:30 PM (JUST ADDED) Visiting filmmaker: Laila Abbas ABOUT THE FILM After learning that their father left a huge sum of money behind after his death, Mariam and Noura come up with an elaborate scheme to abscond with the money […]

More Information

Goodbye Julia

2024

Images of Africa

Goodbye Julia

Sunday, Sep 29th

18th Arab Film Festival CLOSING NIGHT AT THE WALKER ART CENTER Sunday, September 29 at 7pm Mizna’s 18th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival closes with a pair of special screenings and a reception catered by Baba’s co-presented with the Walker Art Center. Closing reception will be held in the Bazinet lobby before the film with […]

More Information

dreamworlds

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

dreamworlds

Sunday, Sep 29th

18th Arab Film Festival SCREENS AT THE WALKER ART CENTER Sunday, September 29 at 3:30pm Reserve Here Mizna’s 18th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival closes with a pair of special screenings and a reception co-presented with the Walker Art Center. “Filmmakers make the light. There is always poetry in images and images in poetry: imagination, […]

More Information

Inshallah a Boy

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Inshallah a Boy

Sunday, Sep 29th

18th Arab Film Festival Sunday, September 29 at 1pm ABOUT THE FILM After the sudden death of her husband, Nawal struggles to cope with the upheaval in her life. However, her pain is soon compounded by the possibility of losing her home to her brother-in-law. Desperate to keep her home and provide a stable life […]

More Information

The Teacher

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

The Teacher

Saturday, Sep 28th

18th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 28 at 9:15pm ABOUT THE FILM A Palestinian school teacher struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with emotionally supporting one of his students. When a student is killed by an Israeli settler, the teacher’s political life becomes intertwined with his role in the community. He reveals his […]

More Information

To a Land Unknown

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

To a Land Unknown

Saturday, Sep 28th

18th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 28 at 7pm ABOUT THE FILM After fleeing a camp in Lebanon, two Palestinian cousins––Chatila and Reda––are stranded in Athens, living in an underground limbo. Desperately seeking a way to reach Germany, they find themselves caught in an uncontrollable spiral. As they save to pay for fake passports, Reda […]

More Information

No Other Land

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

No Other Land

Saturday, Sep 28th

18th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 28 at 5pm ABOUT THE FILM Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community’s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families—the largest single act of forced transfer […]

More Information

A Fidai Film

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

A Fidai Film

Saturday, Sep 28th

18th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 28 at 2:30pm The screening of A Fidai Film (78 min) is preceded by Undr (15 min). ABOUT A Fidai Film Dir. Kamal Aljafari • Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France • 2024 • 78 min • Essay/Documentary • English, Arabic, Hebrew In the summer of 1982, the Israeli army invaded […]

More Information

Three Promises

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Three Promises

Saturday, Sep 28th

18th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 28 at 12:00pm The screening of Three Promises (61 min) is preceded by pal/imp/sest (32 min) and The Poem We Sang (20 min). ABOUT Three Promises Dir. Yousef Srouji • Palestine • 2023 • 61 min • Documentary • Arabic Three Promises is the story of a mother and her […]

More Information

Anxious in Beirut

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Anxious in Beirut

Friday, Sep 27th

18th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 27 at 9:15pm The screening of Anxious in Beirut (93 min) is preceded by The Diary of a Sky (44 min). ABOUT Anxious in Beirut Dir. Zakaria Jaber • Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Spain • 2023 • 93 min • Documentary • Arabic In the ever-present desire to capture, record, and […]

More Information

The Burdened

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

The Burdened

Friday, Sep 27th

18th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 27 at 7pm ABOUT THE FILM Aden, Yemen, 2019: Civil war has been raging for five long years. Isra’a and Ahmed are in a constant battle to provide for their five children––putting food on the table, dealing with daily power outages, and finding gasoline for their van makes life […]

More Information

Life Is Beautiful

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Life Is Beautiful

Friday, Sep 27th

18th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 27 at 5pm ABOUT THE FILM In 2014, while a young Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly was visiting a film festival in Tromsø, Norway, Israel launched a war on Gaza and the borders to his home were closed. It will be seven years before he can return home and see […]

More Information

Tajouje

2024

Images of Africa

Tajouje

Thursday, Sep 26th

18th Arab Film Festival Thursday, September 26 7pm, Gathering8pm, Outdoor Film GATHERING UNDER THE BRIDGE: Join us beginning at 7:00pm under the Third Avenue Bridge, outside of the Main Cinema. Festival sponsors Baba’s Hummus will have a food truck and Batroun Wines will serve Lebanese wine for a suggested donation + DJ Jacques will be […]

More Information

Revolutionary Tales Shorts Segment

2024

Images of Africa

Revolutionary Tales Shorts Segment

Thursday, Sep 26th

18th Arab Film Festival FREE for Students REVOLUTIONARY TALES FROM SUDAN Revolutionary Tales is an in-person and virtual program guest-curated by Sudanese filmmaker Rafa Renas. This series of films depicts various perspectives and revolutionary currents in Sudan’s recent history. ABOUT THE FILMS The Spider-man of Sudan Dir. Rafa Renas and Phil Cox • 2022 […]

More Information

Bye Bye Tiberias

2024

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Bye Bye Tiberias

Wednesday, Sep 25th

18th Arab Film Festival Opening Night Wednesday, September 25 at 7:30pm SOLD OUT – A limited number of RUSH tickets may be available at the door. ABOUT THE FILM In her early twenties, Hiam Abbas left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actor in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, […]

More Information