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Exhibition news
IMAX theaters
Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s muvi Cinemas adds four new Imax locations

Three of the new locations are scheduled to open by the end of 2024, with an additional location to follow in 2025.
Al-Takdir staff
Karlovy Vary IFF
Munich Film Festival
Refugee camp stories
Xoftex

Xoftex

Writer-director Noaz Deshe's ambitious horror-tinged drama about the surreal absurdism of life in a refugee camp is messy and muddled but commendably original.
Al-Takdir staff
Abdellah Taïa
Cabo Negro
Karlovy Vary premiere
Queer drama

Cabo Negro

In writer-director Abdellah Taïa's ode to youthful rebellion 'Cabo Negro', two heartbroken queer Moroccans take refuge in a luxury villa to confront old traumas and share solidarity.
Al-Takdir staff
Backstage
Mediterrane Film Festival
Morocan film
Tunisian film

Backstage

Mysterious personal dramas unfold off-stage when a modern dance company has a bus break-down traveling to Marrakech in Tunisian codirectors Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane’s intelligently avant-garde on-the-road drama, ‘Backstage’.
Al-Takdir staff
Brandt Andersen
Mediterrane Film Festival
The Stranger's Case
Yasmine Al Massri

The Stranger’s Case

Confronting the world refugee crisis head-on in highly dramatic scenes that refuse to let go, Brandt Andersen’s etched-with-an-axe ‘The Strangers’ Case’ is a human disaster movie that passionately describes a chain reaction of real-life horror.
Al-Takdir staff
Bye Bye Tiberias
Lina Soualem
Palestine
Palestinian Oscar submission

Lina Soualem explores themes of exile through generations in ‘Bye Bye Tiberias’

Lina Soualem is touring global festivals with her very personal documentary 'Bye Bye Tiberias', in "a moment of great tragedy and despair".
Al-Takdir staff
Mo Harawe
Somali cinema
The Village Next to Paradise

Somali Filmmaker Mo Harawe Makes History

When 'The Village Next to Paradise' bowed in Un Certain Regard, Mo Harawe became the first Somali filmmaker to compete at Cannes.
Al-Takdir staff
Norah
Saudi cinema
Tawfik Alzaidi

Norah

Tawfik Alzaidi’s classically narrated, slow-burn drama 'Norah' is a tribute to art and artists in socially conservative societies like 1990s Saudi Arabia.
Al-Takdir staff
Amr Gamal
Asmae El Moudir

‘The Mother of All Lies’ wins Malmö Arab Film Festival

Other big winners include Amr Gamal's Yemeni drama 'The Burdened', Lina Soualem's 'Bye Bye Tiberias' and Kaouther Ben Hania's 'Four Daughters'.
Al-Takdir staff
ACC
Reviews

A New Home for Arab Film Reviews

Al-Takdir will offer more international coverage for films produced in the MENA region.
Al-Takdir staff
Casting Arabia

Why Casting in the MENA Region Sucks!

Actor Eyas Shanaah, the founder of Casting Arabia, talks about real-life casting in the MENA region in his first column for Al-Takdir.
Al-Takdir staff
Hotels
NEOM
Saudi Arabia

MARRIOTT TO OPEN RITZ-CARLTON RESERVE IN TROJENA

Marriott International and city-of-the-future NEOM are planning an ultra-luxury resort in secluded Trojena, Saudi Arabia.
Al-Takdir staff
NEOM
Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Opens Doors to Shooting on Location for TV and Film

AlUla and NEOM have no shortage of filming locations: vast deserts and sand dunes, mountains and valleys, lakes, coastlines and ancient ruins.
Al-Takdir staff
Berlin Film Festival
Palestine-Israel

No Other Land

Beginning in 2019, a quartet of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers in the Occupied Territories start documenting Israel’s appropriation of the land and its escalation until just after the start of the current juggernaut in Gaza.
Al-Takdir staff
Marrakech International Film Festival
Tilda Swinton

‘Yes I Wear Rags at Home.’ Tilda Swinton Talks ‘Real Actors,’ Fashion

British actress and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton reveals a new side of herself in the new musical 'The End'.
Al-Takdir staff