Rania Stephan

A filmic dialogue between exiled Syrian writer Samar Yazbek and the filmmaker that tries to ask vital questions about cinema and literature in the face of war, death and violence. Focusing on the relation between the spoken word, the literary text and the act of listening, the film explores the writer’s work with her own tools: words. As the war intensifies, the dilemma increases: to speak or not to speak becomes a central question in the film. But if the filmed conversations are interrupted, who will tell the story of the voiceless? A pertinent poetic and political testimony of our troubled times.

Science fiction is a rare genre in the otherwise rich and diverse history of Egyptian mainstream cinema. One exception is the film "The Master of Time", directed by Kamal El Sheikh in 1987. In this film, the main character, a scientist named Mr. Kamel, is obsessed with the idea of immortality. Through radical editing, Lebanese artist and filmmaker Rania Stephan captures the quintessence of this obsession. In her film, she eliminates all fictional elements from the original and retains only the transition shots featuring doors, gates, and all forms of crossing and passing through.

The film is a journey following the traces of the old railway line, linking Lebanon to Palestine, an extension of the so-called Orient Express to the North and Egypt Lines to the South, today out of service. Based on material originally filmed in 1999, it gives voice to marginalised rural and transient residents living near derelict stations. By embedding Polaroid photographs into moving images, the film is also reminiscent of memory and its mechanisms, thus becoming itself an interrogation of what happened in between, now and then. A personal vision of post-civil war Lebanon.

Panoptic explores Lebanon's schizophrenia. Depicting a nation thriving for modernity while ignoring the vices preventing it from achieving its goal, director Rana Eid examines this paradox through sound, iconic monuments and secret hideouts.

Panoptic explores Lebanon's schizophrenia. Depicting a nation thriving for modernity while ignoring the vices preventing it from achieving its goal, director Rana Eid examines this paradox through sound, iconic monuments and secret hideouts.

While evoking the language of film noir, Memories for a Private Eye investigates a personal archive, foregrounding a fictional detective—Marc McPhearson from Otto Preminger's Laura—to help unfold deep and traumatic memories.

This haunting and beautifully formed documentary is a meditation on the life of Egyptian screen legend Soad Hosni, who starred in eighty-two feature films between 1959 and 1991. Hosni’s mysterious death in London in 2001 sent shockwaves through the Arab world, and this is the first film which look into her life and work. Using filmic montage, director and video artist Rania Stephan reveals the diverse modes of female representation embodied in Hosni's charismatic roles, and creates an ebullient picture of the iconic actress who captivated the modern Arab imagination.

This haunting and beautifully formed documentary is a meditation on the life of Egyptian screen legend Soad Hosni, who starred in eighty-two feature films between 1959 and 1991. Hosni’s mysterious death in London in 2001 sent shockwaves through the Arab world, and this is the first film which look into her life and work. Using filmic montage, director and video artist Rania Stephan reveals the diverse modes of female representation embodied in Hosni's charismatic roles, and creates an ebullient picture of the iconic actress who captivated the modern Arab imagination.