Continuing the track-record of presenting Arab and international talent to the world at major film festivals, 12 films supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) will screen at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival which runs until September 16. 

This builds on the strong show of films backed by DFI at the recent Sarajevo and Venice film festivals, according to a statement issued Sunday.

Among the 12 films, four are marking their world premiere while eight have their North American premieres, one of which is in the Special Presentations showcase. 
“It has been an exceptionally rewarding year for the alumni of DFI, with several films being chosen for international film festivals, including now at Toronto,” CEO Fatma al-Remaihi said.
“We are truly delighted to present the works of our emerging talents as well as works by accomplished filmmakers that have been supported through our Grants and co-financing initiatives and nurtured through our annual industry event, Qumra,” she added. “The 12 films at Toronto present distinctive narratives that celebrate the power of films to inspire and move audiences worldwide.”


The Day I Lost My Shadow by Soudade Kaadan, is about Sana, a young mother struggling to raise her child in war-torn Syria in 2012.


In the Masters’ section are screening Turkish auteur and 2014 Palme D’or winner and 2016 Qumra Master Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree (Turkey, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Sweden and Qatar); Divine Wind (Algeria, France, Lebanon, Qatar) by the established Algerian filmmaker Merzak Allouache, which is about Nour and Amine, who meet in a house near the city of Timimoun in the Algerian Sahara. 
Also marking their world premiere at Toronto are Look at Me (Tunisia, France, Qatar), directed by Nejib Belkadhi, about Lotfi, a Tunisian immigrant; Freedom Fields (Libya, UK, US, Netherlands, Lebanon, Canada, Qatar) by Naziha Arebi is a documentary screening in TIFF Docs; and Brotherhood (Tunisia, Canada, Sweden, Qatar) is a short film in the Short Cuts segment, directed by Meryam Joobeur. 


Screwdriver by Bassam Jarbawi is about Ziad, who struggles to readjust to life in Rammallah after spending more than a decade in prison for a failed attack on an Israeli settler.

The six films to celebrate their North American premieres at Toronto in the Discovery section and Wavelengths programme are: A Kasha (Sudan, South Africa, Germany, Qatar) by hajooj kuka, nurtured at DFI’s annual industry event Qumra, about Adnan, a revolutionary war hero; Screwdriver (Palestine, US, Qatar) by Bassam Jarbawi about Ziad, who struggles to read just to life in Rammallah; Too Late To Die Young (Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Qatar) by Dominga Sotomayor, which is set in the summer of 1990 in Chile; The Day I Lost My Shadow (Syria, France, Lebanon, Qatar) by Soudade Kaadan, about Sana, a young mother struggling to raise her child in war-torn Syria in 2012; The Load (Serbia, France, Croatia, Iran, Qatar) by Ognjen Glavoni?, about Vlada, a truck driver, who is tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999; and Long Day’s Journey into Night (China, France, Qatar) by Gan Bi, about Luo Hongwu, who returns to his hometown from which he fled 12 years earlier. 
In the Special Presentations segment is Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki’s Capharnaüm (Lebanon), which won the Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, a gritty film about a child who rebels against the life imposed on him and launches a lawsuit against his parents.