As in previous years, MENA films are once again spread across the Cannes Film Festival programme . This year includes one title in Competition, two in Un Certain Regard, a Special Screening, and one film each in Critics' Week and ACID. The Quinzaine also presents a feature and a mid-length film, alongside a strong presence in the short film selections across all sections.
Together, these works reflect a cinema shaped by displacement, labour, war, and the persistence of memory.
Despite this presence, MENA cinema continues to reach the Croisette largely through diaspora networks, international co-productions, and hybrid forms, rather than through volume alone.
This reflects the challenging conditions faced by filmmakers in their home countries, while also highlighting a recurring critique of what is often called the 'world's most important film festival': its relatively limited scope and aesthetic curiosity beyond established production territories.
Short films remain a particularly vital entry point for emerging MENA filmmakers. In the La Cinef selection, which focuses on exceptional works from film schools, Tunisian filmmaker Youssef Handous presents Somewhere I Belong .
The film, produced by Tunisia's ISAMM film school, explores themes of identity and belonging and is invited to the programme for the first time.
Across the parallel sections, narratives of rupture and transition recur.
In What Do the Maknines Dream Of , Algerian director Sarra Ryma follows two young people on the verge of migration; in Nafron , Daood Alabdulaa explores memory and selfhood in a transforming Damascus; while Lebanese artist Ali Cherri blurs reality and dream in The Sentinel , tracing a soldier's nocturnal drift through a suspended world.
Elsewhere, Nothing Happens After Your Absence returns to Sudan, where the act of screening films becomes entangled with bureaucracy and the outbreak of war, highlighting how cinema itself remains precarious in contexts of conflict.
Beyond the screen, prominent Arab figures in cinema also hold key roles within the festival.
French-Algerian actor Leïla Bekhti presides over the Un Certain Regard jury, joined by Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar as a jury member, further strengthening the region's presence within Cannes' institutional framework.
With the festival just around the corner, here's a closer look at the MENA-focused features this year has in store. Parallel Tales Director: Asghar Farhadi – France, USA, Belgium, Italy Iranian director Asghar Farhadi returns to the Cannes Competition with Parallel Tales , a French-language ensemble drama loosely inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog: Six .
Asghar made the decision to stop directing films in Iran after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard enforced the use of hijabs in film and television productions . He has previously directed two feature films outside Iran: The Past (2013) , set in France and focusing on the Iranian diaspora, and Everybody Knows (201 , set in Spain.
Set in Paris, Parallel Tales follows Sylvie, a renowned writer played by Isabelle Huppert, who becomes obsessed with observing her neighbours. She hires a mysterious assistant, played by Adam Bessa, setting off a chain of emotional and moral upheavals.
Featuring Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, and Catherine Deneuve, the film reflects Asghar's ongoing work in exile.
A major European co-production, Parallel Tales highlights the influence of diasporic authorship in shaping MENA cinema's presence at Cannes, even when the films are produced outside the region. La Más Dulce (Strawberries) Director: Laïla Marrakchi – Morocco, France, Spain French-Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi returns to Cannes with a socially grounded drama about migration and labour exploitation.
The film follows Hasna, a Moroccan worker in Spain, who hopes to support her family but faces abuse, harassment, and inhumane living conditions.
As she and her companions begin a legal fight against their employers, the story becomes a portrait of resistance within systems of structural inequality.
Laïla builds on her earlier work by examining cross-border labour dynamics and anchoring the story in contemporary socio-political realities that resonate across North Africa and Southern Europe. Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep Director: Rakan Mayasi – Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi makes his feature debut with a visually driven, fragmentary narrative set in a Bedouin village in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley .
The story follows the disappearance of a young woman accused of arson, gradually revealing the invisible social structures that govern the community.
Constructed through gestures, silences, and mythic undertones rather than a conventional plot, the film explores the intersection of reality and folklore. Rehearsals for a Revolution Director: Pegah Ahangarani – Iran Iranian filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani presents a personal documentary tracing more than four decades of Iranian history through archival material and intimate storytelling.
The film is structured around five portraits of resistance, blending personal memory with collective experience, from the aftermath of the 1979 revolution to present-day upheavals.
Using home videos, protest footage, and recorded voices, Pegah constructs a layered reflection on political repression and the enduring desire for change. Clarissa Directors: Chuko Esiri, Arie Esiri – United States, Nigeria, Egypt Clarissa follows its protagonist over the course of a single evening in Lagos. She prepares to host a reception at her home, but the unexpected arrival of old friends triggers buried memories and unresolved tensions, turning the gathering into a quiet reckoning with the past.
A contemporary reimagining of Mrs Dalloway, the film transposes Virginia Woolf's modernist structure into present-day Nigeria.
Co-directed by Chuko and Arie Esiri and shot on 35mm, it stars Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and Nikki Amuka-Bird.
Selected for the Quinzaine (Directors' Fortnight) at Cannes 2026, it reflects a transnational production model while remaining rooted in Lagos' urban landscape. In Search of the Grey Bird with Green Stripes Director: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi – France, Morocco Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Saïd Hamich Benlarbi presents a 45-minute mid-length poetic journey through southern Morocco.
The film follows a solitary traveller crossing the Atlas Mountains in search of a mysterious bird, unfolding as both a physical and symbolic quest.
Expanding into mid-length format, Saïd continues to explore themes of displacement, introspection, and landscape. The Station Director: Sara Ishaq – Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq , based in Amsterdam, explores a politically charged story set in a women-only petrol station in Yemen.
The station functions as a fragile sanctuary, where its owner, Layal, enforces rules excluding men, weapons, and politics.
When her brother faces forced enlistment, this balance collapses, forcing her to confront the limits of neutrality and protection.
As an international co-production, The Station , alongside Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep , exemplifies the transnational frameworks that bring MENA stories to global audiences. Living Twice, Dying Thrice Director: Karim Lakzadeh – Iran As part of the ACID programme, and the only production there not funded by the French state, Iranian director Karim Lakzadeh presents a darkly ironic narrative about three miners who survive a collapse but choose to fake their deaths so their families can receive compensation.
As they navigate a clandestine existence marked by bureaucratic absurdity and personal crisis, the film becomes a reflection on identity, survival, and the paradox of proving one’s own death. Mariana Hristova is a freelance film critic, cultural journalist, and programmer. She contributes to national and international outlets and has curated programs for Filmoteca de Catalunya, Arxiu Xènctric, and goEast Wiesbaden, among others. Her professional interests include cinema from the European peripheries and archival and amateur films