Soura Shorts

A Move
Elahe Esmaili, Iran 2025 | 26min | Persian with English subtitles 

Skin of Sadness
Hasan Caliskan, Turkey 2025 | 20min | Turkish with English subtitles 

Threaded
Naaman Azhari, Lebanon, UK 2025 | 5min | Arabic with English subtitles

Aliens in Beirut
Raghed Charabaty, Lebanon, Canada 2025 | 17min | Arabic with English subtitles

Sonata of Good Women
Mehdi Mahaei, Iran 2025 | 20min | Persian with English subtitles

Hi Mom, It’s Me Loulou
Atakan Yilmaz, Turkey 2025 | 20min | Turkish with English subtitles

Soura Film Festival invites you to an intimate evening of short films celebrating queer stories from SWANA and beyond. Although this year’s edition of the festival could not take place, we gather to keep the festival’s spirit alive, to hold space for one another, and to celebrate the resilience and creativity of our community. This evening is a reminder of our shared solidarity, our stories, and the power of coming together through queer cinema from the region. (Robert Moussa)

Soura Film Festival is a queer film festival that sheds light on cinematic talents from the SWANA (South West Asia & North Africa) region. Soura—which means ‘image’ in Arabic—is about sharing a vision of life that is poignant, defiant, and unique. The festival’s mission is to create a safe space for filmmakers whose creative vision has challenged heteronormativity and patriarchal environments, and have explored queerness and what it represents to them. Queerness, as seen by the festival, is not exclusive to efforts related to the LGBTQ+ community, but also tackles themes such as feminism, migration and human relationships that defy oppressive social constructs.