Middle East Studies: Films
Streaming Films
You can find hundreds of streaming titles through our film databases. Check them out here.
Documentaries
Recent documentaries related to MES owned by GVSU.
-
Arusi- Persian Wedding For filmmaker Marjan Tehrani and her brother, growing up Iranian-American has always meant being caught between two worlds. With unique perspective and intimate storytelling, Tehrani brings to life a compelling examination of US-Iranian relations through the personal journey of her brother and his American fiancée's trip to Iran to hold a traditional Persian wedding.
-
Class of 2006 In May 2006, an imam academy in Morocco holds a graduation ceremony. But the class of 2006 is no ordinary group-- side-by-side with the male graduates are 50 women pioneers, among the first contemporary group of women to be trained as religious leaders in the Arab world. Empowered to do everything that male imams do -- except lead Friday prayer in a mosque -- the women will fan out across Morocco to work.
-
Control Room Provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Criticized for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, the station has revealed everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration does not want the public to see.
-
Fordson Follows a predominately Arab-American high school football team from a Detroit suburb as they practice for their big cross-town rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, revealing a community holding onto its Islamic faith while they struggle for acceptance in post 9/11 America.
-
Four Women of Egypt Four Egyptian women have the same goals--human dignity and social justice--but each adopts a different approach. Muslim, Christian, Jewish or non-religious, their visions of society range from wanting a secular or socialist state to an Islamic one.
-
Garbage Dreams Follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people".
-
Kandhar: Journey into the Heart of Afghanistan Nafas, an Afghan-born Canadian journalist, returns to her homeland in a desperate attempt to reach her sister, who, overcome with grief after being injured by a landmine and her despair over the Taliban's oppression of women, has vowed that she will commit suicide at the time of the next solar eclipse.
-
Koran by Heart Three children leave their native countries to participate in The International Holy Koran Competition. As the competition reaches its climax, this film offers a compelling glimpse into some of the pressures faced by the next generation of Muslims.
-
Motherland Afghanistan Afghanistan today has the second highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world. The filmmaker reveals the extent of this tragedy by documenting the 2003 return to Afghanistan of her father, an OB/GYN, as he attempts to rehabilitate a Kabul Hospital.
-
The Other Side The story of three young children in three different countries. Despite their differences and distances from each other, they all share the same dilemma of losing a parent to another country and then struggling with their loss.
-
Projecting Culture Twelve undergraduate students enrolled in the School of Cinema TV at the University of Southern California discuss American and Arab films in light of September 11 and war in the Middle East. The students come from a variety of backgrounds and through their passionate debate, one can learn how the same film characters and storylines can be interpreted in radically different ways.
-
Slingshot Hip Hop As Palestinian citizens living in a walled ghetto with minimal infrastructure and few opportunities for economic prosperity, these rappers have a lot to overcome on their way to success. These artists rap about friends killed in attacks, strafed buildings, rubble, fields stripped of every tree, and rage at separation walls and checkpoints.
-
These Girls Follows a band of teenage girls living on the streets of Cairo.
-
We Loved Each other So Much For nearly half a century, the Lebanese singer known as Fairuz, has been a living legend in the Arab world. This tells the stories of Beirut inhabitants who, regardless of their political or religious affiliations, have always felt a deep emotional connection with Fairuz and her music, which expresses such universal themes as romantic longing, family attachments, nostalgia for simpler times and love of country.
-
Where Soldiers Come From This documentary follows three young men over four eventful years: through basic training and a 2009 deployment to an explosives unit in Afghanistan; to visits with their families while they are overseas; and the rocky return home, without commentary.
-
The Yacoubian Building The Yacoubian building in Cairo was long regarded as the last word in comfort and elegance. Nowadays the veneer has cracked and the shine has dulled to reveal the truth underneath. Through stories of a number of the residents, the film paints a portrait of corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, homosexuality, and drugs in Cairo and creates a vibrant picture of contemporary Egypt.
Feature Films
Recent full length feature films owned by GVSU Libraries:
-
10 Paints a portrait of contemporary Iran, as seen through the eyes of one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a period of several days.
-
Arranged Two young teachers - one an Orthodox Jew and the other Muslim- find a bond through their experiences going through arranged marriages.
-
Babel Americans touring Morocco become the focus of an international incident involving a Moroccan farmer. A San Diego nanny, with her employers absent, makes the decision to take her charges with her to Mexico. A Japanese teen tries to deal with a relationship with her father. From issues like terrorism and immigration to husbands talking to their wives and parents understanding their children, Babel interweaves these stories to examine communication.
-
The Band's Visit The Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event. Once there, they find they are stuck with no arrangements to get to their destination. As the band settles in, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.
-
Broken Wings An Israeli mother struggles to keep her family together after the death of her husband.
-
Captain Abu Raed An airport janitor makes a big difference in the lives of the children in his poor neighborhood when they mistake him for a pilot. Using his imagination to weave stories of the places he has visited around the world, he brings hope to their otherwise grim home life.
-
Caramel A romantic comedy centered on the daily lives of five Lebanese women living in Beirut, all with their own quirks and comedic problems they must deal with.
-
Children of Heaven Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes, Ali's. School awaits. Will the plan succeed?
-
A Citizen, a Detective, and a Thief When a wealthy indolent young man becomes involved in an unlikely friendship with a thief, a detective, and a maid, he discovers how much he has to learn about life and love. This musical comedy won awards in Egypt for its director, cinematography, score, acting, and screenplay.
-
Close to Home Two Israeli female soldiers, one rebellious and one controlled, find friendship with one another while patrolling the streets of Jerusalem.
-
Distant Set in Turkey, when a successful photographer's wife leaves him, he falls into an existential crisis. His cousin from a small village comes to live with him to get a better job. The two are total opposites and have a hard time adjusting to each other's habits.
-
Close up = Nema-ye Nazdik Series of 4 different films from Iran that explore aspects of life.
-
The Grand Voyage The stern father of a Muslim family in France has his teenage son drive him to Mecca for the hajj. The son, who is irreligious, doesn't relate to his traditionalist father, nor does the dad relate to his son.
-
The Hurt Locker US Army Staff Specialist Owen Eldridge serves in a bomb disposal unit stationed in Baghdad. Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague.
-
Incendies After the death of their mother, a set of twins make a life-altering discovery. The pair travels to the Middle East on a mission to uncover the truth about the father they thought was dead who is still very much alive, and the brother they never knew existed. Along the way they will piece together the story of the woman who brought them into the world, discovering a tragic fate as well as the courage of an exceptional woman.
-
Jerusalem, Another Day A Palestinian girl has only 10 hours to both find and marry her boyfriend in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. The uncertainty of her father's approval adds further difficulty.
-
Lemon Tree A drama based on the true story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemon tree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.
-
A Man's Fear of God A promotion brings a Turkish Muslim's relationship with God into question.
-
Monsieur Ibrahim An elderly Turkish Muslim grocer befriends a lonely teenage Jewish boy in a working class section of Paris.
-
Offside According to Islamic custom, women are not permitted to watch or participate in men's sports. Many of the ambitious young female fans who manage to sneak into a soccer arena are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes these young men and women adversaries, but duty can't overcome their shared dreams, their mutual attraction, and ultimately their sense of national pride.
-
A Separation A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
-
The Turkish Bath A successful designer from Rome, arrives in Istanbul to dispose of an inheritance left him by an aunt. Once there he discovers that the property is a traditional Turkish steam bath. The beautiful son of the bath's custodian, ushers him into the sultry world of the baths.
-
Turtles can Fly In Kurdistan, Iraq, near an enormous refugee camp an enterprising kid makes a living installing TV antennas, hooking up the occasional satellite connection, and hiring out a gang of boys to perform odd jobs. Mostly they remove land mines and they do a good job of the dangerous work. The children suffer first, and suffer hardest.
Subjects: Middle East Studies
- Last Updated: Feb 17, 2025 11:45 AM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/mes
