Description
Join us on April 29th for a special Documentary Screening as Cheers Cinema collaborates with the Emruz Biennial for an evening dedicated to real stories, cultural reflection, and cinematic truth.
The selection of documentary and fiction films from the Emruz open call was guided by a focus on strong artistic voice, originality, and emotional resonance. We prioritized works that reflect diverse perspectives and engage thoughtfully with themes relevant to contemporary life and the SWANA diaspora.
For documentaries, we looked for authenticity, depth of storytelling, and a compelling connection to real-world experiences. For fiction films, the emphasis was on narrative strength, visual language, and creative direction. Across both categories, we considered technical execution, clarity of vision, and how each film contributes to the overall curatorial narrative of the festival.
To complement the films, we’ll be serving two signature cocktails and one mocktail, inspired by the themes and cultural context of the program — crafted to echo their atmosphere, emotion, and storytelling.
At Cheers Cinema, we blend film and mixology into a single immersive experience, where stories unfold not only on screen but also through taste, conversation, and shared moments.
Join us for an unforgettable evening of cinema, flavor, and cultural exchange.
🎬 Reception: 6:15 PM
🎞️ Screening: 7:00 PM
🎟️ Secure your tickets and be part of this unique cinematic experience.
Documentary selection:
Ladies and Gentlemen – 2026
The barriers and boundaries created by patriarchal social and gender norms and bigotry that prevent us from simply being ourselves… have we really managed to sink that ship? Still constrained, still violated by those norms to different degrees in different parts of the world, can we avoid the danger of constraining ourselves with new norms we create, which we should rather treat as work in progress? After all, aren’t we human beings ever a work in progress?”
Country: Germany
Language: English
Running Time: 8 minutes
Director: Derya Durmaz
From Stages to Squares – 2024
On March 19, 2025, the police barricades torn down by students in front of Istanbul University opened a new chapter in the history of Turkey’s student movement. The academic boycott spread across all universities, and the mass protest marches that seized the streets with the voices of a generation silenced all their lives also led the theater collective Oynak Kumpanya, originating from Galatasaray University, to take to the squares with their plays.
Country: Turkey
Language: Turkish with English subtitles
Running Time: 20 minutes
Director: Enes Kilic
Choosing our Religion – 2024
On March 19, 2025, the police barricades torn down by students in front of Istanbul University opened a new chapter in the history of Turkey’s student movement. The academic boycott spread across all universities, and the mass protest marches that seized the streets with the voices of a generation silenced all their lives also led the theater collective Oynak Kumpanya, originating from Galatasaray University, to take to the squares with their plays.
Country: USA
Language: English
Running Time: 20 minutes
Director: Salar Korang
Fiction Selection :
Night of Melancholia – 2026
Night of Melancholia is a short narrative film set almost entirely inside a small apartment in Iran, over the course of a single evening. The story follows Mahy, a woman living under the belief that a government-released fog erases memory. As a result, she has developed precise rituals to protect herself from forgetting: sealing windows, wearing a mask, rewinding the same vinyl record, and photographing her husband each time he returns home. Mahy’s husband, Siavash, repeatedly arrives at the apartment in a state of confusion, believing protests are still ongoing and that he is being pursued. Each time, he does not fully remember who Mahy is or the life they share. Mahy documents these moments using a Polaroid camera, creating visual proof of his return and of a reality that continually slips away. As the night unfolds, fragments of suppressed memory surface through sound recordings, missing objects, and a child’s voice embedded in the vinyl record. The apartment itself becomes a space marked by absence, empty walls, removed belongings, and gaps where memory should be. The repetition begins to fracture, revealing that what has been forgotten may be tied not only to political control, but to personal loss. The film uses repetition, sound, and confined space to explore memory erosion, state violence, and the cost of survival when remembering becomes dangerous.
Country: Iran
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Running Time: 16 minutes
Director: Fozhan Gharib
Balloon – 2026
Balloon is a short film set on the rooftop of a balloon factory, where a domineering manager’s sudden absence sparks a silent, tense struggle.
Country: Egypt
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Running Time: 18 minutes
Director: Behzad Azadi
Steak – 2023
The Steak is a short narrative film that examines power, obedience, and moral collapse through a single escalating encounter. Told entirely without dialogue, the film follows an ordinary situation that gradually exposes a violent social order operating beneath everyday life. The film explores how war can ruin everything in only 7 minutes. By removing spoken language, The Steak invites audiences from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to engage with the work on an instinctive and emotional level, rather than through explanation.
Country: Iran – Canada
Language: None
Running Time: 8 minutes
Director: Kiarash Dadgar
Dreamy, Uncertain, and Dying Every Day – 2023
Is a coming-of-age drama that follows 18-years-old shehab, a teenager grappling with self-doubt and struggling to communicate his dreams.
Country: Iran
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Running Time: 18 minutes
Director: Hossam Waleed
Kooseh, a man who can’t grow a beard- 2021
The film approaches masculinity, fear, and social violence through a poetic and restrained cinematic language. This work marks an early stage of my filmmaking journey and reflects my interest in portraying fragile human conditions within everyday Iranian life.
Country: Iran
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Running Time: 15 minutes
Director: Behzad Azadi
