Directing
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When the Norwegian-Turkish filmmaker Nefise Özkal Lorentzen was little, she used to send letters to Allah by balloon. Now she wants to send a new balloon to change the role of women in the Muslim culture. By following her grandmother's path as a 'sufi', she embarks on a journey to rediscover the Islam of her mother's mother. The film switches between her actual journey and her dreams. She experiences the diversity of Cairo, Istanbul and Oslo by drinking tea with the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi, finding hope and inspiration in the life of the 90-year-old author Gamal al-Banna and meeting a young Salafist. On her journey through the labyrinth, it dawns on Nefise that Islam is not the only place to search, but that there are correlations between the three Abrahamic religion and the oppression of women.
Why does a man in Kuwait inspired by the 99 names of Allah and the Quranic stories create a comics and cartoon series about super heroes called The 99? Why does a man in Bangladesh travel from one village to another, teaching the community how to play a board game? Why does a man in Indonesia encourage other men to wear mini skirts in a demonstration? They all have the same goal. They want to change the dark side of the masculinities in their cultures by playing games. They all want to reform Islam. They are the Muslim Davids against Goliath.
Yusuf is a teenage boy growing up in the suburbs of Oslo with close friends and a loving mother, but something is haunting him that will force him to face his darkest feelings.
The exemplary humanitarian work of Turkish-German radical feminist, lawyer, and imam, Seyran Ateş is the central focus of this compelling and revealing documentary. As a young Muslim girl in Berlin, Seyran grew up experiencing Islamic repression. Since then, she has dedicated herself to reforming Islam, opening the first mosque with no gender segregation and educating and empowering LGBTQ Muslim youth to embrace their sexuality. The film reveals a determined woman, one willing to put her life on the line in the name of religious reform and sexual freedom.
Adrian and Julian are brothers who move from Norway to Turkey, where they stay for six months. They have Turkish mother and Norwegian father. In this five-part documentary film, Adrian tells how it's to meet the Turkish culture, and how he gets to know it through school, new friends, dance and traveling.
Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.