From forbidden love in Beirut to a mysterious soldier in wartime Europe, this year’s Narrative Films Competition at the El Gouna Film Festival is taking audiences all over the map — and into some pretty complicated corners of the human experience.
The ninth edition brings together nine films from filmmakers across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with stories tackling love, identity, grief, migration, family, survival and everything in between.
Here’s what’s on the lineup.
Only Rebels Win — Danielle Arbid
France, Lebanon, Qatar
Set in crisis-ridden Beirut, Only Rebels Win follows Susan, a 65-year-old widow of Palestinian roots, and Osman, a young undocumented Sudanese immigrant. Their unlikely meeting turns into an unexpected love story, forcing two people from very different worlds to navigate a city — and a relationship — under pressure.
Rose — Markus Schleinzer
Austria, Germany
A soldier arrives in a secluded Protestant village during the Thirty Years’ War claiming to be the heir to an abandoned manor. But there’s much more to this stranger than meets the eye: Rose is living under a false name, identity and gender. And she’s willing to go a long way to finally claim the life she wants.
Fatherland — Paweł Pawlikowski
Poland, Germany, Italy, France
In 1949, Nobel-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika set off across a Germany still shattered by war. Their road trip through the divided country becomes something much more personal, bringing old family tensions and questions of identity, exile, love and guilt to the surface.
All the Lovers in the Night — Yukiko Sode
Japan
Fuyuko is a freelance proofreader living a quiet, meticulously organised life in Tokyo — until she meets Mitsutsuka, an unusual high school physics teacher. Their encounter begins to shake up the solitude she has carefully built around herself.
The Garden We Dreamed — Joaquín del Paso
Mexico
A Haitian family trying to build a new life in Mexico finds itself caught in the world of illegal logging. As the forest around them is destroyed and violence closes in, their fragile little pocket of stability becomes a fight for survival — and for somewhere they can finally call home.
Halima — Yassine El Idrissi
Morocco
Living on Morocco’s coast, Halima makes a modest living gathering and selling mussels. Then one unexpected phone call drags a buried part of her past back into her life. As her home, livelihood and sense of belonging are threatened by rapid change, Halima keeps fighting to hold on.
3 Weeks After — Miroslav Terzić
Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg
A school trip takes a dark turn when a group of students and teachers become stranded at an isolated hotel. When Tsotsa begins talking about the recent suicide of his best friend, uncomfortable questions about what happened — and who looked away — begin to surface.
The film turns adolescence, bullying and group silence into a tightly wound psychological drama.
A Bit of Light — Ali Asgari
Iran, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Türkiye
After losing his medical practice and becoming disillusioned with the future, an Iranian doctor decides to spend one final day with his mother and siblings before ending his life. But the care and companionship he encounters begin to complicate the decision he thought he had already made.
Pipes — Karim Kassem
Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
When an entire Lebanese town suddenly loses access to water, retired water-authority worker Hassan finds himself pulled back into the role of fixer. But while everyone expects him to solve the crisis, Hassan is also grieving a friend whose death remains shrouded in mystery.
Part social drama, part quiet mystery, Pipes explores an aging man’s relationship with the town he has spent his whole life serving.
A Lineup Full of Stories
What makes this year’s competition especially intriguing is just how far apart these films are — geographically, culturally and narratively. Yet many circle the same big questions: Where do we belong? What do we owe the people around us? And how do we keep going when the world around us starts falling apart?
With nine very different answers, El Gouna’s Narrative Films Competition is shaping up to be a pretty fascinating cinematic journey.
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