The Ruins of the Future

Presented in collaboration with Dhakira Collective and La Clef Revival as part of the Chergui series. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Joyce Joumaa, video artist and writer.

This program is a collection of short experimental/speculative fiction films exploring themes of dystopia, futurity, space, and decolonial imagination from Yemen, Lebanon, France, and beyond. The films in this program invite us to a critical and theoretical conversation about the “future” and what it can reveal about our present moment.

MAHJAR

Alia Ali. 2021. Yemen. 14 min. Arabic, English. Mahjar is an immersive video work that explores the Yemeni diasporic experience through a layered narrative of personal memory, history, mythology, and speculative futurism. Drawing on archives, performance, religious symbolism, and invented languages, the piece reflects on the violence of war, displacement, and colonial erasure, while proposing new ways of imagining home and identity

THE SECRET GARDEN

Nour Ouayda. 2023. Lebanon. 27 min. Arabic. One morning in Beirut, mysterious plants suddenly overtake the city. Guided by a botanist’s drawings, Camelia and Nahla search for an invisible garden that seems to exist everywhere and nowhere. As their journey unfolds, the city transforms—plants become strange creatures, both refuge and threat. Blending poetic investigation and post-apocalyptic vision, the film explores memory, survival, and the possibility of a future in bloom.

OCEANIA

Valentin Noujaïm. 2024. France. 24 min. French. Najib, 16, spends his summer on a video game, until his mother, Asma, discovers the death of their elderly and lonely neighbor. He steals the keys to the apartment, and dives into an unexpected world.

KHTOBTOGONE

Sara Sadik. 2021. France. 16 min. French. Zine, a 20-year-old man, is on a quest to become the best version of himself before proposing to his girlfriend. He takes us through his introspections and the daily emotional struggles he must confront.