A journey to Mecca for a grandmother and her two granddaughters is interrupted when the eldest sister disappears, sending the remaining duo on a search across the Kingdom in this intergenerational road-trip drama about family tensions, buried secrets, and unexpected bonds between Saudi women. Hijra premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film.
Hijra
Contemporary Arab Cinema is co-presented with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and:
This series is made possible through the support of:
Hijra
Q&A with co-producer Ali Al-Darraji
Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)
"It takes a detour from a pilgrimage to Mecca to uncover true enlightenment in Hijra... Ameen slyly sets the stage for a religious journey where everyone has to come to define the principles they want to live by on their own."
SPECIAL EVENTS
Q&A with co-producer Ali Al-Darraji moderated by series curator Lina Matta
Friday, Jul. 24 2026, 4:00
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Ali Al-Darraji is an Iraqi-Canadian producer based in Toronto. He co-produced Hijra, directed by Shahad Ameen, which premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, and on Irkalla: Dreams of Gilgamesh, directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji, which premiered at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. He is currently developing several feature film projects and international co-productions between Iraq, Canada, and the Arab world.
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Lina Matta is the series curator for Contemporary Arab Cinema, the Director of Shahid AVOD, MBC 4 and the two movie channels, MBC 2 and MBC MAX at MBC Group in Dubai. A film fanatic, Lina watches movies at work and for fun. In her spare time she attends film festivals. If you’re looking for Lina, you may find her eating a frozen dog in Park City, UT, grabbing a felafel sandwich in Toronto or chasing a food truck in Austin, TX. Lina holds an M.A. in Film from Boston University. She’s been a news producer, a TV director, a field audio engineer, an original web content producer and she once worked closely with a Libyan revolutionary!
Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)
This film is part of the following initiatives:
This film is part of the Contemporary Arab Cinema series.
Contemporary Arab Cinema is co-presented with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and:
This series is made possible through the support of:
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