Nezouh: dir Soudade Kaadan (2022)

Fourteen-year-old Zeina lives with her mother and father in Damascus, one of the few remaining families in a devastated neighbourhood. Covert visits from a local boy offer Zeina glimpses of freedom outside the oppressive control of her father – but her escape comes as much through her imagination as it does through her connection with the boy. Nezouh finds real poetry in the dust and wreckage of the city. Arabic with English subtitles.

This film screens in the sixth edition of the Manarat’s CinemaMAS film festival, curated this time by filmmaker and visual artist Scandar Copti – head of the Film and New Media program at NYU Abu Dhabi from 2014 to 2017. Currently, he is still teaching filmmaking at NYUAD while working on an upcoming feature film.

Individual films on weekdays are AED 30 per head, weekends are AED 50 per day, and there’s an all-inclusive ticket at AED 150.