Arab, International Filmmakers Praise Qumra 2025 For Pushing Powerful Films

Doha: Arab and international filmmakers presenting their projects at Qumra 2025, the annual talent incubator by Doha Film Institute, hailed the industry event for supporting powerful stories from script to screen. Expressing gratitude for Qumra, the emerging filmmakers said it provides a space for collaboration, community, and critical exposure.

Pablo Perez Lombardini, now in the final stages of his debut film The Reserve (Mexico, Qatar)-about a ranger protecting a natural reserve despite resistance from her community-commented:“Qumra provides us with valuable relationships for our current and future films. It makes you feel like you are part of a community and has surpassed expectations.”

Echoing this, Helene Harder, the French-Germandirectorof the documentary Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid (France, Morocco, Belgium, Qatar)-told through a 67-year-old Moroccan activist and survivor of political violence-said:“Doha Film Institute helps create buzz and knowledge around our films. I'm very grateful to be here-this beautiful organisation and the quality of people we meet here are impressive.”

“Without an audience, there's no film. Qumra is helping us get our audience by working to gather distributors, sales agents, and broadcasters, which enables us to reach our audience internationally,” said Hamed Zolfaghari, the Iranian filmmaker blending reality with fantasy to capture the clash of past and present in his documentary, Once Upon a Time in Shiraz (Iran, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar).

Whether tackling issues of immigration, displacement, or inequality, the emerging filmmakers all spoke of deeply personal perspectives. Emphasising the power of cinema to inspire change, they described years-long journeys of development requiring persistence, patience, and trust-building with under represented communities.

Madrid-born Guillermo Garcia Lopez spent three years living among the concernedcommunity to gain their confidence ahead of shooting his feature filmSleepless City (Spain, France, Qatar), about a teenage Roma boy grappling with the threat of eviction.“When society wants to exclude a community, they take away electricity, water, but also culture,” he said. He found creative ways to involve everyone.“We were doing film workshops with the kids, making films with phones, and later had a short film in Cannes, which we considera success for representation and visibility.”

Inher short series El'Sardines (Algeria, France, KSA, Qatar), Zoulikha Tahar tells the story of Zouzou, a single bio-marine scientist in Algeria, who clashes with her parents over joining a sardine migration expedition days before her sister's wedding. Nicolas Khoury, whose documentary Souraya Mon Amour (Lebanon, Qatar) follows the widow of Lebanese filmmaker Maroun Baghdadi, presents an intimate portrait of love and grief, offering a reprieve from the war-torn backdrop of his home nation, Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Mother of Silence (Iraq, France, Qatar) by Iraqi filmmaker Zahraa Gandhour reflects on the cultural stigma surrounding newborn girls in Iraq and the disappearance of the filmmaker's childhood friend, Noor.“This project has been through Qumra before, during the development phase. I saw the same experts two or three years ago and again now, which was great as they were familiar with the project. It's a very personal story about our feelings toward our mothers and how we express them,” she said.

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