Short film program „Family Ties“

Tinted with love or shaped by violence, carrying the weight of responsibilities and traditions, or disavowed in the quest for freedom, these short films explore the complexities of their protagonist's relationships to their families.
TRUMPETS IN THE SKY (Rakan Mayasi, Palestine/Lebanon/France/Belgium 2021) DCP without dialogue 15 min.
A young woman returns from her daily work in the potato fields of Lebanon to unexpectedly enter the new life of an arranged marriage. A silent dialogue between a mother and her daughter and their painful farewell.
AL-SIT (Suzannah Mirghani, Sudan/Qatar 2020) DCP Original version with English subtitles 20 min.
Nafisa (Mihad Murtada) lives among the cotton fields in a small Sudanese village. Her parents want to marry her off to a young entrepreneur to expand their cotton business. But Al-Sit, the grandmother and authority figure of the village, has other plans.
THE BATH (Anissa Daoud, Tunisia/France 2020) DCP Original version with English subtitles 15 min.
When his wife goes on a business trip, Imed (Mohamed Dahech) remains alone with his 5-year-old son Hedi (Sami Khelifi) for the first time. Although overwhelmed at first, he soon starts to enjoy the valuable time he is spending with his son. But soon Imed’s dark and suppressed traumas come back to haunt him.
AND THEN THEY BURN THE SEA (Majid Al-Remaihi, Qatar 2021) DCP Original version with English subtitles 13 min.
A personal archive about the stories, poems and rituals of a place and a family. The filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi processes his mother's gradual loss of memory, which he witnessed over several years. He weaves his memories into a cinematic work in order to preserve the irretrievable.
LIFE ON THE HORN (Mo Harawe, Somalia/Austria/Germany 2020) DCP Original version with English subtitles 25 min.
The contamination of the Somali coast with toxic waste forces people to leave. A young man stays behind to take care of his sick father. A poignant tableau in black and white that poetically portrays the dilemma between love and the hope for a better life.
KHADIGA (Morad Mostafa, Egypt/France 2021) DCP Original version with English subtitles 20 min.
A young mother builds a life in Cairo alone with her baby and is confronted with her darkest feelings. A story about the thin line between life and death, postpartum depressions, and the hurdles single mothers face in contemporary Egypt.