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The Arab Film Festival is dedicated to bringing the unique Arab experience to our American audiences. Each year the festival offers inspiring stories through outstanding films by and about Arabs. Some of these stories unfold in distant places and others just next door. These films offer authentic images and narratives that reflect the diversity, talents, and realities of Arabs throughout the world. In doing so, the festival culturally bridges and connects global Arab filmmakers and their work with a wider community.

Gaza-London: In December 2008, a massive Israeli assault is launched in the Gaza Strip. Mahmoud is in London, his mother's in Gaza, and he is desperately waiting for her to call. When Mahmoud agrees to take part in a radio program about Gaza, his mobile is taken away by the producers. For the next few minutes, he has to endure listeners' questions, and a surprise guest who will reveal what has become of his mother.

Phatwa: Narcy is an Arab in the West and a Hip Hop artist trying to make it in the rap game. When he tries to board a flight to New York with his friend Yushua to perform at a music festival, Narcy is stopped by an ignorant and zealous security agent. In the style of the epic music video, Phatwa will make you laugh, bob your head, and question the role of Americans and Arabs in a post-9/11 world.

Fatenah: Fatenah, a Palestinian woman in Gaza Strip, wishes only for consolation in her dire living situation. But when she discovers a lump near her breast, she will start a journey of torment, loss, and pain, and will struggle to save her dreams from being shattered by the injustice and cruelty that surrounds her world.

Noor: Noor, an American teen visiting Palestine for the first time with her mother, gets caught in an Israeli Defense Forces imposed curfew - interrupting her birthday plans with a sudden journey to her aunt's. While there, she is forced to come to terms with her family's past in an unexpected turn of events.

Lesh Sabreen?: Two young lovers in Jerusalem navigate the dreams and dead-ends of their socially-conservative and Israeli-controlled community. Will Sabreen and Ayman muster the imagination to realize their hopes for the future despite the social, economic and political constraints they face?

Absence: A man checks who's at the door, but doesn't find anyone. Absence deals with the poignant subject of loneliness in a fast moving society.

Henna: Henna is an 8-year-old girl living in a fishing village held together by tradition. Her mother's illness leads to a divorce, and Henna's only remaining father figure, a Bedouin relative, is driven from the village. Set in the UAE's recent past, Henna explores the effect of a rapidly developing society on one girl's family.

Salt of this Sea: Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather's savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of "returning" to Palestine. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands.

Basra: In Paris, Tarek decides to stop studying law to pursue his passion for photography, and returns to his native Egypt. At the same time, the US and Britain invade Iraq. Tarek's existential quest to survive in an oppressive world builds up to the imminent fall of Baghdad.