Festival Aflam | Affluents : Khabur + Bleu gris + Beneath Which Rivers Flow

Editorial

What can cinema do in an Arab world shaken by wars of erasure and governed by the law of the strongest, in contempt of international law and populations? It can bring people together, break isolation, create encounters between filmmakers and audiences, and thus offer a space in which to pick up the threads, revisit history and stories, and repair memories and images.

This is the meaning of this edition of the festival, which is part of Saison Méditerranée 2026. Aflam is taking part in the momentum launched last May by contributing to the circulation of works, narratives and imaginaries. The 2026 festival will also be an opportunity to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Vive archives series, Aflam’s annual program highlighting this cinematic heritage since 2021. The 2026 edition will focus particularly on questions of memory, the preservation of archives and the transmission of collective histories through cinema.

Festival Aflam – 13th edition

Affluents

A program proposed and presented by Anaïs Farine

Following the course of the Euphrates from one of its sources in northern Syria to the point where it joins the Tigris in southern Iraq, this screening reflects on absent archives and artifacts. In the program’s three films, the river and its tributaries bear witness to major political projects characterized by different events: unearthing, flooding and drying up. An environmental approach can offer new tools for rethinking the question of loss in an Arab region deeply marked by the inaccessibility and destruction of its archives. This approach can contribute to writing a transnational history of cinema that does not limit itself to telling the story of the surviving copies alone. It invites us to perceive differently what escapes view: the life submerged beneath the waters of dams, and archives looted or hidden from sight. The screening will be accompanied by a reading developing this hypothesis and drawing on excerpts from other films by Omar Amiralay and Kassem Hawal, as well as documents bearing witness to the production of films shot in Syria between 1966 and 1975.

Khabur

by Nafis Fathollahzadeh | 2023 | Iran, Germany | 31 min

The Khabur is the Euphrates’ longest tributary, a transboundary river crossing the border between Turkey and northeastern Syria. The climate crisis, prolonged periods of drought, the ongoing war, the embargo, water policies and the construction of dams across the border by the Turkish state are among the reasons contributing to the drying up of the Khabur River and the water crisis in the region.

Bleu gris

by Mohamad Roumi | 2004 | Syria | 23 min

Returning to the places of his childhood in northern Mesopotamia to work as a photographer on an archaeological mission, the author learns that the entire region will be submerged beneath the waters of the largest dam built on the Euphrates in Syria. The filmmaker decides to bear witness to a splendor destined to be forever hidden from view.

Beneath Which Rivers Flow

by Ali Yahya | 2025 | Iraq | 16 min

“Rooted in the daily life of Ibrahim and his family, who live in the marshlands of southern Iraq, Beneath Which Rivers Flow exceeds documentary expectations by creating a profound and imaginative narrative. The young man wanders through the rivers and reeds accompanied by the buffalo that serves as his faithful companion. One day, an imposing fog covers the land and transforms it. As the landscape deteriorates, powerful visual metaphors and an emotional approach that resists intellectualization place humanity at the forefront. From this sensitive and speculative perspective emerges an allegory of the multiplying consequences of extractive colonialism and climate change on the human, natural and geographical landscapes shaping Ibrahim’s reality.” – MF- RIDM Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal

Preceded by:

Archive Katsakh – Holy Cruise: Bosphorus

Date unknown | 3 min

The “Katsakh: Mediterranean Archives” project is a personal collection of nonfiction films shot with Super 8 mm and 16 mm cameras in cities and villages of the eastern Mediterranean between the 1920s and 1970s. This collection aims to capture the diversity of life and culture in the region, serving as a rich historical archive that invites viewers to connect with our past.

About Anaïs Farine

Anaïs Farine thinks with films, engaging in research, programming, teaching and archiving practices. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut. From 2023 to 2026, she was a research consultant at Cinematheque Beirut (Metropolis Cinema). Since 2016, she has been part of the organizing committee of Festival Ciné-Palestine (Paris).

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The festival screenings