
VICTORY OF YOUTH

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SMILE THE PHOTO COMES OUT BETTER
Director: Sherif Arafa
Photographer Sayed Gharib worries when his daughter Tahani moves to Cairo to study medicine, concerns that prove justified when she struggles to fit in with her privileged fellow students. His solution is to follow her to the city, moving close to the school where she studies. While she is falling in love with the son of a famous businessman, Sayed continues to take pictures. He has strong ideas about photographs of people, which reflect his own sense of dignity in poverty but is also his strongest professional principle. They must look happy; no matter how much sadness anyone carries with them, photographs must express joy. Mona Zaki plays in this film with other important Arab actors, including Ahmed Zaki and Leila Eloui.

SABA
Director: Maksud Hossain
Saba, 25, lives in Dhaka with her demanding mother Shirin, a paraplegic whose frustrations and rage often find a target in the daughter who cares for her. When Shirin’s worsening condition requires surgery it falls to Saba to find the money to pay for it. Securing a job at a seedy Shisha bar, Saba befriends the manager Ankur and, for the first time, pictures what a life of her own could look like. Maksud Hossain’s debut feature is a close-up look at a complicated bond between mother and daughter that lurches between love and guilt, co-dependence and the longing for autonomy - but it is also a social drama, detailing the hardships that underlay the riots in Bangladesh earlier this year.

TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda have fled a Lebanese refugee camp for Athens. Their sights are set on Germany but, with no money or passports, they are stuck in an underground limbo living off scams and petty crime. For Chatila, who has discovered a ruthless streak, anything is justified – even ripping off their fellow refugees – but Reda hates what he has become, a shame he smothers with drugs, squandering the little money they have. Things look up, however, when they meet Malek: a young boy who says his aunt will send him money to bring him to Italy. Working in a style between documentary and fiction, director Mehdi Fleifel brings home the reality of desperation with poignancy and warmth.

GHOST TRAIN
Director: Se-Woong Tak
YouTube creator Da-kyung (played by shooting star Joo Hyun-young), has made her name by recounting real-life horror stories but she has lost a lot of subscribers recently. Her quest to uncover the scariest tales possible leads her to Gwangrim Station; a subway station that is known for the mysterious incidents occurring there. While the station master (Jeon Bae-soo) is initially hesitant to reveal the hidden stories of his workplace, he gradually shares more and more spooky secrets, which does not leave Da-kyung unaffected. Telling one occurrence per episode, this series delights as an exciting play on horror and ghost story tropes, with a cleverly timed narrative structure, and a thrilling sense of atmosphere and mood.