France, The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Qatar, 2025, 84 min

Farsi, English spoken with various subtitles

Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa learns to read and write when she's 52. With the support of her daughter, the filmmaker, she even opens a small textile business. However, with the return of the Taliban to power, her dreams, along with those of her daughter and granddaughter, are shattered as they face new struggles.

Writing Hawa

Arabic, English, Norwegian spoken with various subtitles

Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly insists on telling stories from his hometown Gaza sharing his own experiences and perspectives, not accepting the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy. Stuck in the cold and dark arctic of Northern Norway, only able to connect to his family online, he manages to activate his own creativity and the support from his friends to keep up his motto LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

Life is Beautiful - Al Haya Helwa

Hebrew, Arabic spoken with various subtitles

Kids taken from their homes and interrogated, violating international law. Almost all of the children are convicted and sent to prison. Behind the official reasoning there’s an underlying systemic motive: when a child is jailed, its family won’t make any noise. Three of the children, adults today, watch their own arresting interviews on webcam recordings and speak about their imprisonment. In 2023, Israel's government wants to censor the film.

Two Kids A Day

A film by Erika Gonzalez Ramirez & Matthieu Lietaert

Spanish, English, Portuguese spoken with various subtitles

Three women share a common goal: Carolina, Bertha and Maxima are leading today's fight against modern conquistadors. Whereas governments and corporations, trapped in a global race towards unlimited growth, need to get the cheapest raw materials, these three women tell us a story of tireless courage: how to keep fighting to protect nature when your life is at risk?

The Illusion of Abundance

The first mass Palestinian uprising inside Israel after the Nakba took place in Nazareth in May 1958. The film features ten firsthand testimonies from elderly participants, combining their voices with rare archival materials to revisit a silenced moment that marked a turning point in Palestinian political life inside Israel.

The Untold Intifada

Hebrew, English, Arabic spoken with English subtitles

Using his work as a form of resistance in Palestine-Israel, street-artist Know Hope fights the ongoing genocide. When he faces chronic illness, his murals become a self-fulfilling prophecy. His disease, like the disease of the land on which he steps, walks the line between hope and despair.

Know Hope

Swedish, Farsi, English spoken with English subtitles

Parwin and Amir grew up in a military camp. As toddlers they were sent away by their parents who wanted to focus on fighting the Mulla-regime of Iran. 30 years later they are still hoping to reunite with their mothers. Will they ever succeed?

An untold scandal involving around a thousand children world wide, addressing the most urgent issues of our time: exile, identity, radicalization and our inability to see the needs of vulnerable children.

The Children of Camp Ashraf

A film by Sarah Ema Friedland & Rami Younis

Arabic, Hebrew spoken with various subtitles

This sci-fi documentary shares multiple pasts, presents, and futures of the city of Lyd in Palestine/Israel. Once a thriving Palestinian city, Lyd was forever changed when the State of Israel was founded and most of its residents were massacred or exiled. What could the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened?

World Sales, Production and Distribution in Switzerland since 1998: Relevance, Authenticity, Entertainment, with Passion for eQuality.

First Hand Films

Join us for a special screening online on October 3rd at 1pm ET / 7pm CET / 8pm IDT followed by a Q&A in English with the filmmaker Omer Shamir and protagonist Addam Yekutieli aka Know Hope moderated by Kim Ibrahim , queer Palestinian activist and Arabic teacher at This Is Not An Ulpan.