Ameer Fakher Eldin’s second feature film Yunan, a co-production between Germany, Canada, Italy, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, has won this year’s Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films. The award, now in its seventh edition, is presented by European Film Promotion (EFP) in
collaboration with the Arab Cinema Center (ACC).
The announcement was made during the award ceremony at the El Gouna Film Festival on the
evening of 18 October. Director Ameer Fakher Eldin, who was unable to attend the festival in person, sent a video message in which he thanked the jury, the ACC, and EFP for what he called a “beautiful recognition.” He added: “To see Yunan now embraced by Arab critics as well feels profoundly moving to me. In a way, maybe it means the film has finally found its way home.” Fakher Eldin also expressed his gratitude to his main producer and longtime collaborator Dorothe Beinemeier (Red Balloon Film), who accepted the award on-site in El Gouna: “Yunan is Ameer Fakher Eldin’s second feature film. Like his first film The Stranger, it is a slow, silent and melancholic piece. Ameer’s stories are not loud but told in the most subtle and poetic ways and are deeply touching. His films slow me down, they force
me to take time and think and digest what I see. His films seem to transform every time I watch them. But what happens is that the films are so rich that I just find a new angle every time, another layer.
Ameer is just a brilliant observer and storyteller, a very old and wise soul in a young man’s body. I am very much looking forward to producing the third film of our trilogy “
Yunan follows an Arab man who arrives on a remote island in the North Sea intending to end his life. Instead, he is confronted by its conservative, marginalized German community and the overwhelming force of nature, encounters that unsettle his resolve and gradually reshape his perspective. What begins as an act of solitude unfolds into an unexpected encounter with both people and places gradually evolving into a quiet yet intense philosophical exchange that unearths themes of displacement, trauma and renewal. Shot against the stark beauty of windswept Nordic landscapes, Yunan conjures a haunting sense of emotional exile that mirrors the protagonist’s inner journey.
Fakher Eldin explains that he sought to explore the void left when familiarity dissolves, when the sense of home and belonging shatters and only silence remains. The film was part of this year’s Berlinale Competition and was awarded the Golden Firebird Award Best Actor (Georges Khabbaz) and Best Actress Award (Hanna Schygulla) at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Yunan was produced by delegate producer Dorothe Beinemeier from Red Balloon Film / Hamburg,Germany together with Microclimat Film (CA) and Intramovies (IT). Co-producers are Fresco Films, Metafora
Productions and Tabi360. Its world sales are handled by Intramovies and Mad Solutions is handling Mena sales.
The Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films was launched in 2019 by EFP and the ACC. It is a spin-off from the ACC’s well-established Critics’ Awards to boost the diversity of films in the region and raise the interest of distribution companies and the industry for outstanding European films. The initiative also casts a spotlight onto distinguished film critics from Arab-speaking countries and their important role of introducing new perspectives and bridging cultural differences and characteristics.
Previous winners included, God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya by Teona Strugar Mitevska (2019), Undine by Christian Petzold (2020), 107 Mothers by Peter Kerekes (2021), EO by Jerzy Skolimowski (2022) Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki (2023) and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof (2024).
The Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
about arab cinema center
Organised by MAD Solutions in 2015, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a non-profit organisation registered in Berlin. The ACC is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organises. The ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialised in co-production and international distribution, among others. The ACC’s activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions, and one-to-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign
filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organisations and festivals, and the publication of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets. Furthermore, newsletter subscription is now available on the ACC’s website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine as well as news on the ACC’s activities, notification of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating at festivals, exclusive news on the Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from the ACC’s partners and their future projects.
about el gouna film festival
El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) was founded in 2017 with the mission to showcase a diverse range of films catering to a creative and well-versed audience. Designed for artists and filmmakers, GFF aspires to foster communication between cultures and filmmakers to benefit the industry and our region through the art of filmmaking by connecting filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The festival is dedicated to the
discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world, particularly through its industry segment, CineGouna Platform.
