Description:A teenager in Arkansas searches for identity in the headscarf and a motorcycle in the aftermath of her father's imprisonment. Set in 2006, the film explores the results of Arab and Muslim Americans being increasingly detained for "guilt by association". The film links the civil rights struggle of Arab/Muslim Americans with that of African Americans through Marjoun's attendance of Central High School. It weaves her story into the lineage of the Little Rock Nine. This film is set also at Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi. This Zen Buddhist monastery has been established in the tradition of the friendship of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, bringing together the themes of civil rights movements and interfaith practice. This is an expansion of the short film by the same title, that was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.
Description:Young lovers Qays and Layla are university students in the West Bank who hail from Khan Yunis in Gaza. He is pursuing a degree in literature and she in engineering, but they are forced to return home before completing their courses. In the more religious and traditional environment of Khan Yunis, their love story can continue only by marrying. Yet Qays, who is a construction worker living in a refugee camp, is too poor to convince Layla’s father that he can provide for his beloved daughter. As the couple struggles to be together, Qays paints verses from the classical poem Majnun Layla all over Khan Yunis, a rebellious act that angers Layla’s father and the local self-appointed moral police.