IQMF: Special Short Selection

Magid / Zafar

Duration: 18’
Director: Luís Hindman
Language: English and Urdu
Subtitles: Not confirmed
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2025

Synopsis: Set inside a busy British-Pakistani family takeaway, the film follows Magid and Zafar, two childhood friends whose reunion brings unresolved feelings and secrets to the surface. When Zafar arrives at the restaurant, Magid attempts to hide the nature of their relationship from his family and colleagues. As tensions rise, the film explores queer identity, cultural expectations, secrecy and the challenges of living between personal desires and close-knit community life.

Coyotes

Duration: 20’
Director: Said Zagha
Language: Arabic, Hebrew and English
Subtitles: English and Arabic (depending on screening)
Country: Palestine, France, Jordan and United Kingdom
Year: 2025

Synopsis: A Palestinian surgeon drives home after a long night shift. While travelling along an isolated road in the West Bank, she encounters an unexpected and dangerous situation that changes her journey forever. The film is a tense political thriller exploring fear, vulnerability and the realities of life under occupation.

Birthmark

Duration: 20’
Director: George Peter Barbari (Georgie Barbari)
Language: Arabic
Subtitles: English
Country: Lebanon, France and Croatia
Year: 2026

Synopsis: A woman visits a sex worker in an attempt to discover something about the worker’s world and, ultimately, about herself. Behind closed doors, another kind of conflict unfolds: a struggle over truth, identity and existence. The film explores intimacy, self-discovery and the boundaries between personal and social realities.

Sara & Fatima

Duration: 13’
Director: Nada Cheddadi, Romy Boutin St-Pierre and Karima Zouhair
Language: Darija (Moroccan Arabic) and French
Subtitles: Not confirmed
Country: Canada
Year: 2026

Synopsis: Two young women, Sara and Fatima, meet while waiting for a bus in Morocco. One wears a veil and the other does not. Initially, they are drawn to each other while also judging one another based on their cultural and personal differences. As they spend time together waiting for a bus that never seems to arrive, they gradually reveal their vulnerabilities and discover unexpected similarities. The film explores cultural identity, prejudice, solidarity and female friendship.

Breaking Walls

Duration: 23’
Director: Jan-Dirk Bouw
Language: Dutch, English and Chinese (Mandarin)
Subtitles: English
Country: Netherlands, Belgium and Norway
Year: 2025

Synopsis: The documentary follows Hoi Yi, a journalist and activist fighting against the global rise of surveillance and censorship while hiding his queer identity from his family in China. Although he publicly advocates freedom of expression and helps Iranian journalists circumvent censorship, he struggles with his own self-censorship and the pressure of his family’s expectations. After entering an arranged marriage to maintain appearances, Hoi navigates the complicated relationship between his public activism and private life. Through animation and documentary storytelling, the film explores queer identity, freedom, family expectations, cultural repression and the courage to live authentically.