IN THE MEDIA

What Strange Paradise By Omar El Akkad

Age rating: 16+

Plot: another dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape lives back in their homelands. But, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old Amir, who is soon rescued by Vanna. Vanna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. It is a story of two children finding their way through a hostile world, but also a story of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair- and about the way each of those things can blind us to reality.

Route 10

Age rating: 12

Plot: when their flight from Riyadh is cancelled, a brother and sister go on a risky road trip through the desert to attend their father's wedding in Abu Dhabi. A heartracing thriller in which their trip takes a turn when they are pursued by an angry stranger and end up in a fight for their lives.

The Greater Freedom By Alya Mooro

Age rating: 14+

Plot: Egyptian-born and London-raised, Alya Mooro grew up between two cultures and felt a pull from both. Where could she turn for advice and inspiration when it seemed there was nobody else like her? Mooro is determined to explore and explode the myth that she must identify either as ‘Western’ or as one of almost 400 million other ‘Arabs’ across the Middle East. Mooro gives voice to the Middle Eastern women who, like her, don’t fit the mould. Women under pressure to conform to society’s ideals of how a woman should look and behave, what she should want and be. Women who want to think and act and love freely, without feeling that every choice means ‘picking a side’. Women who are two things at once and, consequently, neither.

The Suit

Age rating: 12

Plot: after a duo of slackers dress up as policemen for a costume party, they decide to prolong their disguise- not knowing that it will lead them to danger. A perfect combination between a comedy and a thriller, this is the perfect movie for a film night.